Somewhere three days away from the village, a group of ten people was stationed waiting for something. They were using clothes that made them look like bandits, and all had cultivation that varies between the 3rd and 6th stage of Foundation Establishment. Their leader was holding a picture of Krune. He had received an order from the clan to capture this demon beast in human form, and they should also eliminate all witnesses while at it. It is necessary since the Mercenary Guild can't be trifled with.
They received this order three days ago and set out from Kaley City. The leader also received information about how to recognize Krune's aura. He isn't putting much thought on it, though. The target is only at the 1st stage of Foundation Establishment, he thinks that it will be way too easy to capture him. So what if he beat three 2nd stage puppets at once? With his 6th stage cultivation, he could do that too, even if there were more of them!
"Alright, we rested enough, so let's set out. Considering the period, we should be able to find Krune by tomorrow at most, so we should hurry."
---
Krune was traveling with the group, in the last three days, they fought two bandit groups. Too bad for the bandits, though. They underestimated this team, and it wasn't long before when they were wiped out. The other three Foundation Establishment cultivators were amazed by Krune, to think that a 1st stage Foundation Establishment guy could be this strong.
The bandits were really unlucky, Krunes divine sense can be extended to over five kilometers. Although it spends a lot of spiritual energy to keep it on, it doesn't mean that Krune needs to do so without stop. He simply used it every 15 minutes or so for a second or two. With that, he could find out about the bandits ambushes long before they did something.
Yusa wasn't much different either, she might not have Krune strength, but she still got a Two Stars Mercenary Badge, so she is quite strong herself.
Krune saw her using a skill called water prison, which the enemy couldn't leave doesn't matter what they did. Inside that prison, he could see water blades running around and attacking the bandit from all sides, and it didn't take long before the ones trapped inside were dead. She also had something that looked like water dragons dancing around her body, but they didn't do anything. In the end, she told him that they were for defense, they would be used to block any attacks coming in her direction.
Seeing that, Krune tried to make a water prison himself since it looked a very good imprisonment skill. But he failed in the first tries, which made Yusa laugh at first. Did Krune even know how long it took for her to learn that? But the smile on her face didn't last long. An hour later, Krune had already formed a water prison, it was just that his one wasn't as good as hers. Still, to learn how to use the water prison by simply looking and only taking an hour to get a basic understand of it. That made her think about Krune as a monster! Krune also tried the water dragons since this one was easier to learn. After realizing how to form the water prison, his understanding of the water element improved several times, so it wasn't difficult to grasp it.
Yusa didn't even want to look at it anymore. Otherwise, her self confidence will crumble completely.
Practice makes perfect, in those three days, Krune's water prison and water dragons were already as good as Yusa's. Maybe even better! In fact, Krune was holding back since he was only practicing, there was no need to go all out with it. Krune then thought about something.
'The Myriad Energies Technique is really marvelous. Now I'm even more sure that this technique has this name because of its ability to improve one's control over the elements. I have been feeling that the higher my cultivation gets, the higher my control becomes.'
It was the night of the third day when the group stopped to rest. They didn't set up a concealing formation because there are too many people, their concealing runes would not be able to cover them all. There is also no need for that anyway, very few bandit groups would pose a threat to them to start with. Almost everyone was sleeping, with just three Qi Condensation cultivators awake to watch for them.
Krune was nearby cultivating. He finally reinforced his planet foundation enough to breakthrough.
'It really takes a lot of time, and every stage higher I get, the longer it will take. I will need higher-level spirit stones in the future or better cultivation resources too.'
He put those thoughts behind his mind and went forward to breakthrough the next stage. The cultivators who were sleeping when suddenly, the spiritual energy of the surroundings started to move crazily in Krune's direction. Yusa then looked at him.
"He is breaking through, so he will get to the 2nd stage now. Krune was already this strong with a 1st stage cultivation, now that he is becoming a 2nd stage one, he will be even stronger. I already wasn't his match before, let alone now. This Universe Foundation of his is really marvelous!"
She couldn't help but sigh.
It didn't take long for an explosion of spiritual energy comes from Krunes Universe Foundation, which sent dust everywhere. They knew that he had succeeded. The leader of the then group came forward to congratulate him.
"Very good, brother. Now we are going to be even safer during our travel."
His name was Ao Sulian, a sword practitioner. Krune smiled and accepted the compliment. This guy was quite an easygoing cultivator, he didn't have that aura of pride around him when he talked with the Qi Condensation ones of the group. That made Krune have quite a good impression of him.
"It was just lucky, and I've have been accumulating spiritual energy for a long time already. So now I simply took the chance that my foundation got sturdy enough to go through it."
Yusa then came forward to ask him.
"How long has it been since you broke through into the Foundation Establishment Realm?"
Krune showed an embarrassed face while scratching the back of his head.
"It has already been almost an entire month. I've been really busy lately with my leaving of the Katiu forest, Mercenary Exam, and all that, so it's nothing worth to mention."
Yusa and Ao almost vomited blood. Nothing worth mention? Nothing worth to mention your head! Then what about us? Should we just dig a grave and die then?
"Cough, cough. There is no need for you to hurry so much anyway. In fact, you are progressing very fast already. Be careful, or your foundation might get unstable. A strong foundation can get you much further even if it takes longer."
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Krune then nodded, he then thought to himself.
'Seems like that my cultivation speed is much higher than cultivators and demon beasts at my level, I better not mention about it in the future.'
They didn't know that Krune's foundation was already as sturdy as it could be. It was because he was afraid that he hadn't reinforced his planet foundation enough that he didn't break through earlier. He is making sure that everything is perfect before advancing any extra level.
Finishing talking with them, Krune went back to cultivate again. There are still a few hours before they set off the next morning. Also, his future 'rainbow' core can now absorb more spiritual energy again. Krune then took even more spiritual stones from his spatial ring and started to send spiritual energy into it.
'As expected! Now that I have broken through, the rate of absorption of spiritual energy from the rainbow core has increased too. Probably, it will need more spiritual energy as well.
Before Krune had used around 200 Rank One middle and high-quality spirit stones to fulfill his rainbow core, now he needs to see how many his 2nd stage rainbow core will use.
Krune kept at it until the next day, and he noticed that his spiritual stones are disappearing at a very fast pace. If this continued like this, he would only have enough for another two days. His rainbow core looked like a bottomless hole too, and that made him feel quite depressed. Not at his rainbow core or his universe foundation, but at his own wealthy.
"Alright, everyone, let's go. We are just three days away from Kaley City. From here onward, the number of bandits should decrease too."
They set forth, and everyone was in a quite good mood. This travel had been easier thanks to Krune and Shinja joining them later.
---
It was already getting dark again when Krune suddenly felt a Divine Sense pass over him. He then used his own Divine Sense, which was now capable of reaching over six kilometers to check things out. Sure enough, he found a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators moving in their direction at full speed, and it was obviously not a friendly encounter.
"Ao, prepare everyone for battle, ten Foundation Establishment cultivators are moving in our direction, and they look like bandits!"
Ao Sulian was alarmed, but he came to know during their travel that Krune's Divine Sense was out of the charts, so he didn't doubt him.
"Everyone, battle formation! Ten Foundation Establishments are coming, but we have quite a lot of Qi Condensation ones. Use three or four of you to form a small formation to deal with one of them. Hurry! They are almost here."
Krune was already using his Divine Sense to track them. He used it to inform the group from where and when they would appear, and as expected, those guys appeared just like he said.
Those ten Foundation Establishment bandits didn't say anything and attacked the group straight away, their orders were for them to eliminate all witnesses and bring Krune back.
Immediately, chaos descended in the group. Their opponents were much stronger than them, after all. Ao Sulian and Yusa Shen have the strongest cultivations at the 3rd stage of the Foundation Establishment each. Still, the weakest member of the other group had the same strength.
Yusa was dealing with two at the same time. At first, there was only one at her. Still, that bandit noticed that he wasn't her match on a one vs. one and immediately called for reinforcements. Ao Sulian was fighting one at the 4th stage. As a mercenary himself, he also could fight those at higher levels. His two Foundation Establishment friends were fighting one each. Still, they were clearly at a disadvantage. Their cultivation is lower, and they are ordinary cultivators too, after all.
The Qi Condensation groups were fighting three enemies using their advantage in numbers. Unfortunately, they also seemed at the losing side.
Krune himself was fighting only one. It's just that the guy he was against had a cultivation at the 5th stage, much stronger than the others. Krune didn't mind, though. With his last breakthrough into the 2nd stage, he could defeat this enemy easily. The problem was that there was one Foundation Establishment cultivator that hadn't joined the fray. He just kept looking at how things were going, and Krune thought that he was there to prevent anyone from escaping.
'I can't show my real strength yet. I have to ensure that I can get rid of at least three or more of the enemies so that I won't need to take care of the others while dealing with that guy. He is clearly stronger than any of the others.'
Krune pondered for a bit and suddenly, his eyes lit up! He then sent a Divine Sense message to Yusa and Ao.
'Let's get together! Try to guide your enemies to me, and I will do the same, trust me.'
Ao and Yusa were taken aback, but their situation is dire, and they don't have any other options to start with, so they slowly moved in Krune's direction. The enemy noticed it but didn't care, they didn't think that Krune's group would be able to do anything in this situation.
As soon as the enemy got close enough, Krune smiled.
'Let's see if the water prison that I got from Yusa is really as good as I think.'
He then jumped in the air, focused all his spiritual energy in the water element, and attacked!
"Water Prison!"
Yusa was alarmed! Why is he using a water prison? This skill takes two to three seconds to be fully formed. With their enemies' cultivation, they will be long gone before the prison can be even formed. But what Yusa saw after that made her think whether she had ever really used water prison in her life before. That's because Krune's water prison was huge! Not only was it enormous, he only took one second to create that gigantic water sphere! She immediately thought.
"This is nor FAIR!"
But before she could even think further, she noticed that both her and Ao Sulian were also inside the water prison. Yusa had used water prison thousands of times, and she knows that the next part would be to use water blades to crush the enemies. The problem is, she had never been able to control the direction of the water blades! Doesn't it mean that both her and Ao will also be crushed by it?
But her worries only lasted for another second. That's because there were water blades everywhere, but not a single one hit her or Ao. What kind of monstrous control is that?
One must remember that Krune's main attack skill has always been his wind and blazing wind blades, so his control with this type of skill had long since surpassed common knowledge.
All the enemies got alarmed, and even the leader outside immediately rushed forward. They know that the situation turned around. If they don't stop break the water prison straight away, their four companions inside will die. Not to mention that their group will lose its Foundation Establishment numbers advantage. But how could Krune's group outside let them do as they please? They understood that this was the turning point, and they must stop the enemy from interfering at all costs!
In the end, the only one who made it to the water prison was the leader, and he was a water element expert too. He was confident that with his cultivation, he could totally break that water prison apart, so he used his strongest skill at the prison straight away!
"Myriad Water Dragons!"
Tens of water dragons formed around him, each with the size of a grown man, and they all hit the water prison at the same time!
Too bad, though. Who is Krune? He is the first wisp to ever create a universe as a foundation and the proud user of the real Myriad Energies technique! Not to mention that with the breakthrough from last night, he prowess got even higher! His water prison couldn't be broken so easily! But he still had a hard time controlling the prison and making sure that the water blades weren't hitting Ao and Yusa. The enemy leader's face got cold. His strongest attack made the water prison tremble, and it was on the verge of breaking apart. However, it still resisted, the leader was just about to use the same attack again when he suddenly heard four cries coming from the water prison. He looked inside, and his face got gloomy.
Ao and Yusa noticed that Krune had to ability to control the water blades inside the water prison, so the enemies inside were having a hard time defending against them. Since that's the case, why should Yusa and Ao stay put doing nothing? They immediately attacked when they noticed that. The water blades were already taking the enemies' entire attention, so they didn't have time to pay attention to Yusa or Ao. The result was a fatal attack directed at them from those two, and the four of them died just like that.
The leader outside didn't even have the time to finish forming his second Myriad Water Dragons before it was already over.
The water prison collapsed right after. Since there are no enemies inside anymore, there is no reason to keep it running. Water spread everywhere, but Krune's Divine Sense didn't leave the enemy's leader for even a second. The battle reached a stalemate, and both sides separated, they were waiting to see who would make the first move.