Knowing that he had no time to waste, Krune immediately took action. His cultivation is lower, but he has his intelligence backing him up. When the demon crow was around 50 meters of distance, Krune let out two wind blades, and at the same time, he started to retreat. He knows that wind blades shot at such range can at most leave very small wounds that are hardly able to change anything. But that was his plan, to be able to defeat the crow, he will need first to make it lower its guard.
Also, he needs to save his spirit energy, since he can't shoot too many blades due to the low amount of available for him at his level. So he needs to finish it fast! And to guarantee his victory, the blades will need to be used at ten meters or less. Ideally, under five meters. Also, if he makes too much of a ruckus, he might attract even more demon beasts.
The problem was if he used his blades at five meters or less, he won't have time to dodge the attack even if he hits the demon beast. So Krune was trying to buy as much time as possible while thinking about a plan. Once he uses his real killing move, he must succeed. If not, the demon crow will put up its guard, and he will probably be finished.
Sure enough, the crow felt the wind blades hitting its body but completely disregarded it. The closer it got, the more nervous Krune became. But he kept up to his plan, and he shoots another three blades. Still, this time he purposely lowered its attack power so that the beast won't feel any difference when the blades hit. As expected, the same thing happened, but that was when Krune noticed something. Although the wind blades didn't threat the demon crow, it still slightly made it change its route, which was immediately corrected by the later.
'I never thought about using the wind power this way and I don't know if it will work, but it will have to make do.'
Although it took a lot of time to explain, in fact, it all happened in just a few seconds.
Krune finally stopped and readied five wind blades, that is the biggest number he can shoot at once while keeping enough spirit energy for one last maneuver. At the same time, by his side, the power of wind started to compress. If one didn't pay attention, they would think that Krune was preparing a sixth wind blade to attack.
The demon bird didn't think anything about it. Due to its higher level of cultivation, it indeed had a higher intelligence compared with ordinary beasts. Fortunately, it really was not a match for an adult wisp. After feeling the amount of damage inflicted by the first five wind blades, it totally threw caution to the back of its mind.
20 meters...
15 meters...
10 meters...
'Keep calm, keep calm. I only have one chance. If I screw this up, I'm finished. Keep waiting, five meters, it must be five meters! Otherwise, I can't guarantee success.'
Krune kept reminding himself, one can't blame him for his nervousness, until today he would flee at first sight of danger. But today, he had to fight, and he must win!
In fact, Krune had no other choice, his opponent has higher cultivation and is a demon bird capable of flying. Not to mention that there are very few trees or other objects around which he could use at his favor. Also, Krune wanted to prove to himself that all that he had said that day in front of Su Feng and Wang Feifei wasn't just talk.
The demon crow quickly approached, in its eyes the wisp is already in its belly having its energy being absorbed and raising its own strength.
5 meters!
"Now!"
Immediately, five wind blades made with 90% of all his remaining spirit energy shoot forward. At the same time, the sixth ball of compressed air by his side exploded! It wasn't a wind blade, but the principle was the same as one. It generated a strong shock wave that blasted Krune out of the way of the demon crow.
That was the only method he could think to get away from an almost point-blank attack while using his killing move under five meters. It doesn't matter how fast he could be, the difference of cultivation levels was too big for his speed match the time frame to dodge on his own.
The four-winged demon crow was alarmed. A sensation of immense danger passed through its body, it then tried to dodge the wind blades. Still, it was too late, the blades were already right in front of it. Immediately, its eyes went red, and a savage look appeared on its face! Since it can't dodge, it might as well take the brunt and bring the wisp down together. But it never expected that that wind blade beside that wisp wasn't a wind blade at all. As soon as it made its mind, that air compressed ball explode right after the wind blades had been shot, blasting the wisp away.
Blood splattered on the air, and feathers flew up in the sky. Three blades hit the right wings while another one hit the left ones. Together with the shock wave that blasted Krune to the right, it was possible to avoid being hit by the demon crow completely! The last wind blade was shot a little after the first four blades, but just before the shock wave. Krune had made up his mind to hit a sure kill blow, and for that, he had to guarantee that the last wind blade hit the right place at the right time. The last blade successfully hit the neck, and one head was separated from its body. The head and the body of the four-winged demon crow stumbled ahead for twenty-some meters before finally stopping.
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Krune saw this sight and felt relieved that it worked out. He used everything he had to the point that he was feeling dizzy. His energy core was in absolute turmoil and almost empty. Even his energy form was a lot smaller and feeble, it would take some time until it stabilized again. But he can't wait here, the smell of blood is sure to attract the nearby demon beasts, he must leave straight away; otherwise, he won't have the chance later.
Krune gave one last glance at the corpse of the four-winged demon crow and was just about to leave when he noticed something. The demon crow is dead, but different from before, he now can feel a high concentration of spiritual energy coming from it. The problem is, with the four-winged demon crow's higher level of cultivation, it should be very hard for Krune to feel this energy. But he just had to think for a second to understand what was happening. The demon crow is now dead, so it can't control the energy in its body any more, which means that now he can easily feel it.
Krune looked back and noticed that close to the place where the neck was severed, there was a small bead. Turns out that when he used his last wind blade to cut the crow's neck, it partially cut its head too, revealing that small bead. The amount of spiritual energy that Krune could feel from that bead was several times his own. Krune quickly made up his mind since every second counts. He used his control over energy to grab the demon core and swiftly left. Not long after, he could hear several roars, and it was evident that the demon beasts nearby started to fight over the free food. But Krune couldn't care less, he isn't in shape to battle anymore, so he pressed forward, quickly leaving this place.
------
Krune was quite lucky. With that demon bird corpse attracting the other beasts, it was easier for him to leave the place without alarming any of them. A few hours later, Krune found a small crevice by the side of a mountain wall. He swiftly entered and noticed that this was the entrance of a cave. He then took his time to check around and made sure everything was safe. Because the crevice was too small, there were only a few insects and some small animals that presented no threat to Krune. Due to the entrance's size and the fact that usually the higher the beasts cultivation, the bigger they were, no demon beast could enter this cave.
After ascertaining that there was no danger, Krune started to look around more carefully. The spider webs on the roof and the small sound of water dripping from the stalactites proved that no one had come in here in a very long time. Except for the very small animals on the ground, of course.
Krune went to the bottom of the cave and rested there. He activated his Myriad Energies technique, and in just a minute, all his seven pseudo energy meridians were formed and started to absorb the spirit energy around greedily. He was finally in the inner parts of the Katiu Forest, and the concentration of spiritual energy was much higher than his hiding place back there behind the waterfall. After restoring himself to his peak, he decided to take the next days to form the last two energy pseudo meridians. It was already the night of the fourth day when he finally finished. Now he had all nine meridians that the Myriad Energies technique allowed to be created.
Krune then decided to spend his time to check the crow's demon core. The amount of spiritual energy inside was really amazing, even at his peak, his own core paled compared to this demon core. And since that's the case, he might as well try to absorb it.
Krune has never been a hasty wisp, he could feel that the energy in this core sure was high, but its properties were far from compared with his own. If he tried to absorb it the way it is, his own core energy would go in disarray, and it might even explode if he loses control. He took out a sliver of the demon core's spiritual energy. He then started to convert it to be compatible with his own, and only then absorbed it.
'If I want to absorb it, I will need to convert the energy into one that is compatible with mine first, and I can only do it a little each time. Considering the speed of the conversion, there isn't much of a difference between absorbing the spiritual energy around me and the converted energy from the demon core.'
Krune started to ponder how to hasten the conversion when an idea came in mind.
'The Myriad Energies technique absorbs the spiritual energy as it is, and the conversion is only made inside the dantian or core. But the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is gentle. It causes no harm to them during the conversion. Because of this, I can't use it to absorb the demon core's energy, which can be considered anything but gentle. But why is that? It doesn't matter how I see it. The pseudo energy meridians should be capable of doing the conversion. At the same time, the energy should pass through them just like any other meridian. This technique was obviously created to imitate the other races meridians during the cultivation. So why is it that I have to wait for the energy to reach my core for only then be able to convert it into my own?'
Once this idea sprouted in his mind, it started to take root, and it quickly grew until it occupied all his thoughts.
'Wrong, wrong! It shouldn't be like this, it's definitely wrong!'
Krune kept thinking about the matter and tried a few things. First, he tried using only one meridian to very slowly absorb a sliver of spiritual energy. After he made all nine meridians to work as a single tube. But nothing seemed to work. In the end, it still gave him the same result, no conversion had been made.
Suddenly, Krune's mind lit up!
'Right! It's not that the way to cultivate with this technique is wrong, it's just incomplete! What if the nine meridians are not the final results but only the initial state? First of all, it doesn't make any sense for it to have only nine spiritual energy pseudo meridians. It doesn't matter how proficient I get with it in the future, it will reach a limit. I simply can't compete with the blood and flesh body meridians. The disparity in numbers is way too great, it shouldn't be like this at all!'
Krune's mind was working like he was mad, after getting to this point in his thoughts, it only took a moment for him to reach a conclusion.
'If my conjecture is right, the nine meridians are not their final form. Not to mention that it doesn't make sense for there to be only nine in the first place. Then it means that creating the nine meridians is just the first stage. What probably comes now can only be...
Fusion!'