Is that a Wisp?

And just like that, two months went by.

Inside a small crevice on a mountain wall, one could see something coming out. It shone quite a bit, but because it was daytime, it didn't appear too catchy. There was only one race in this forest that looked like that, and those were wisps.

That wisp, of course, was Krune. After secluding himself this whole time, he had finally broken through to the 6th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm! This cultivation speed would be inconceivable for almost all ordinary cultivators. The only ones capable of matching it would be the cultivators of big clans or sects. It also showed how formidable the true form of the Myriad Energies Technique was.

Cultivation wasn't the only thing Krune practiced during the last two months. He also improved his control over the wind element so he could use it for more things than just wind blades. Krune could now manipulate the wind around him to move twice as fast. With the improvement of his cultivation on top of that, his speed was now at least four to five times higher than what it was when he first entered seclusion. If he had this level of speed in the battle against the four-winged demon crow, Krune definitely wouldn't need to blast himself away to dodge the demon bird's attack.

Another thing worth mentioning was that with his new Spiritual Energy Meridian, his control over spiritual energy had reached a totally new level. Not only could he absorb spiritual energy much faster, but he could also release and gain control over the tasks applied to it just as quickly. This type of control over spiritual energy should only be something that those at the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm could do!

Krune also developed new skills for defending and attacking. These skills were the Earth Wall and Earth Spike!

Well, in fact, there was nothing new about it. Any cultivator wouldn't have too much of a problem getting their hands on an Earth-based defense skill like those two. The incredible thing about it was that Krune had absolutely no manual or even a shadow of a teacher to help him during the time he was learning it. He developed it all by himself!

It's not like other cultivators can't learn this kind of skill by themselves as well. However, to do that in just two months without any reference while still having time to break through three small realms. Now that was just inconceivable!

Krune, of course, had no idea about any of that. He just cared about survival and improvement. He didn't think he had done anything amazing.

'With this, I should be able to secure one of the low-level spirit veins around the borders of the inner region of the forest. The reason the inner regions have more spiritual energy is exactly because of the greater number of spiritual veins in that area. There's no way that those spirit vein owners could stop the spiritual energy from flowing out, so the concentration here is still greater than the outer region. Even if I acquire just a low-level one, the spiritual energy available for me should still be higher than simply staying in the inner regions.'

Krune then started moving around the borders of the inner region. Also, thanks to his higher level of cultivation, he could now feel the beasts around him much easier. As long as they weren't at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation Realm or higher, he would have no problem perceiving them ahead of time.

Of course, Krune's idea wasn't to simply avoid battle. He was also looking for lonely beasts at the 6th or 7th Stage to practice. He needed their cores, after all.

Fortunately, it didn't take that long for him to find one. Around 200 meters ahead of him, he could see a Three-Tailed Demon Leopard drinking water from a pond on the ground. This was an agility-type demon beast that usually varied between the 5th to 8th Stage of Qi Condensation. In exchange, their attacks weren't that strong, which was a perfect target for him to test his defenses. And this leopard just so happens to be in the 7th Stage, one stage higher than him.

'Since that's the case, I might as well grab its attention straight away.'

Krune gradually got closer, and when he was around 100 meters away, he shot a wind blade. With his higher cultivation level, the strength his blades had and the distance he could shoot them from were much higher now. As expected, the demon leopard noticed the incoming attack and immediately dodged. It was clearly mad at the wisp for attacking it. Its eyes focused on Krune around 100 meters away, and soon, it quickly went after him.

Krune already expected that but didn't do anything. His aim was to test if he can contend against the leopard with his Earth Wall and Wind Movement alone. Using both together should give him the advantage even against the demon leopard.

Unfortunately for Krune, he truly lacked experience. He knew that the leopard was fast, but he forgot to factor in its reaction speed. When the leopard was just 10 meters away, it launched its claw at the wisp. Krune immediately created an Earth Wall in front of him while using Wind Movement to retreat. But the sound of impact against the wall that he was waiting for did not come. Fortunately, Krune noticed the leopard's figure appearing by his side. Surprisingly, it had dodged the wall at the very last moment and immediately threw itself at him.

In an instant, Krune was alarmed! He quickly released the compressed wind ball by his side, blasting him and the leopard away from each other at that very last moment. Krune wasn't an idiot. He had long thought about the possibility that his plans might not work and left that card ready to be used at any time. It turns out that he really needed it.

But it wasn't over. Krune understood why his plan had failed. In the end, the difference in experience between him and the leopard was the main factor. As a beast that lived in the inner regions of Katiu Forest, it had gone through several battles in its life. Even though its intelligence wasn't that high, it still had sharpened its instincts through life and death struggles along the way.

On the other side, for Krune, who only knew how to flee a while ago, it's not unexpected that he would lose in the first exchange. He had used his Earth Wall too early and accumulated too much energy trying to create a sturdy one. Against a demon beast with such quick speed and reaction time like the demon leopard, this kind of mistake could have been fatal.

The leopard was now incensed. The blast was simply a shock wave that separated it from Krune. It had no attack power to speak of. It then pounded at the wisp once more. Sadly for the leopard, Krune wasn't slow either! He learned his lesson, and this time, he waited for the leopard to be right in front of him. Of course, just in case, he readied another compressed wind ball. The leopard didn't care about any of that, though. Just as it was about to reach Krune, an Earth Wall appeared right in front of it again. This time, Krune's move was much faster. That's because he didn't try to create a super-strong wall but focused on the speed of the skill.

The formation of the wall was so abrupt that the leopard's claws hit it right in the middle. The wall trembled and almost crumbled. The leopard's attack might be on the lower end between the beasts in the area, but it couldn't be trifled with. The Earth Wall only resisted for about a second and soon crumbled. But that was precisely what Krune wanted to test. Because he erected that Earth Wall much faster, its defensive power decreased in compensation. Now he had an idea on how he could use it.

Krune didn't dare to delay. From above, one could see that several wind blades had finished forming and were soon shot straight at the demon leopard's neck. Sadly, the leopard wasn't any slower than Krune and dodged to the side. Unfortunately for the leopard, as soon as it dodged, an earth spike shot from the ground. The leopard was alarmed! It tried to dodge once more, but it was too late. Although it didn't hit its heart as planned, the spike still left a gruesome hole on the demon leopard's body.

The leopard noticed the crisis and immediately fled. But how could Krune allow that? The moment it started to move away, another Earth Wall appeared right in front of it. The leopard tried to dodge, but with its severe injuries, it was much slower. As soon as it hit the wall, several earth spikes shot from every direction at it. The leopard could only jump to dodge the spikes, but it was well within Krune's strategy. The moment it jumped, ten wind blades came straight at it, cutting the leopard into pieces. Its severed parts soon fell to the ground as the light in its eyes disappeared.

'Sigh... I really don't like the sensation of killing. But if I wait for others to attack me first just so I could have a reason to strike back, there will come a time when I won't be able to react fast enough. In the end, a good offense is the best defense.'

Now that Krune was at the 6th stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, he wasn't as tired as when he killed the Four-Winged Demon Crow. If necessary, he could still battle one or two more times. But with the bloody smell wafting from the leopard's corpse, what was waiting for Krune wasn't just one or two beasts, but a lot of them.

Krune immediately cut the leopard's head, controlled his spiritual energy to grab the demon core, and swiftly left. Unlike before, he could now move much faster with his higher cultivation and control over the wind element. Before the other beasts even started approaching the leopard's corpse, Krune was long gone from the area.

'Although I still have enough spirit energy to hunt one or two more beasts, I should recover to my peak before then. Caution first, caution first.'

Thought the wisp who just attacked a demon beast with a higher cultivation level than himself and let it get close to him to test his never-before-tested defensive skills. Indeed, Krune was a very 'cautious' wisp.

----

A week later, on top of a big tree with thick foliage, Krune was resting from another battle he had around an hour ago against a demon python. Wisps were considered the weakest race of the universe, but it wasn't like they didn't have any good traits. One of those traits was their immunity to any bodily poisons. Unless the poison was also able to affect the soul, wisps would find it no different than air or water. That demon python tried to use a poisonous fog against Krune. But in the end, it turned out to be the easiest battle he had so far.

'I already have five demon cores, so I guess it should be more or less enough to create the second Spiritual Energy Meridian. Even if I need more spiritual energy for the second, it shouldn't be that much, right?'

Krune pondered over it a little more and decided that it was indeed the case. He was now at the peak of the 6th Stage. The battles he had gone through had stimulated his potential and understanding of the use of the Energy Meridian. He just needed to find a secluded place where he wouldn't be disrupted during the creation of his second Spiritual Energy Meridian. Krune eventually recuperating his lost spiritual energy and immediately set off to find it.

It didn't take long to find a place, though. This forest was the lair of several demon beasts, and the majority had their own dens where they could rest. With Krune's intelligence, it didn't take long for him to find one of those.

The owner of this lair was a 6th Stage Qi Condensation Blood-Eyed Rabbit. Although this type of rabbit was quite fast, it couldn't compare with the Three-Tailed Demon Leopard from back then. So, Krune got rid of it without alarming anyone and used his Earth Wall to seal the entrance.

As a wisp, Krune had absolutely no need for air. Also, spiritual energy was all-encompassing. As long as special formations weren't in place to prevent the flow, anywhere one went in this world would have the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Things like walls of caves were the same as empty air to it.

'With this Blood-Eyed Rabbit's demon core, I now have two 7th Stage demon cores and four 6th Stage ones. That should be enough. There's a bottleneck between the 6th and 7th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. Although I'm confident that I could achieve a breakthrough, it will take quite some time with only a single Spiritual Energy Meridian. I better create my second Spiritual Energy Meridian first.'

With everything in place, Krune started with the creation of his second Spiritual Energy Meridian. He already had the experience of creating the first one. However, even though he hadn't failed the creation of the second one yet, it was still taking a lot more time to finish when compared to the first Energy Meridian.

'Just as I thought. Just like when I was creating the pseudo-energy meridians, every time I start a new one, it will take longer to form. It seems like the Energy Meridians follow the same principle as the pseudo-energy meridians.'

"Click."

This was the second time that Krune had heard this sound. The demon cores were already with him, and just as expected, the second Spiritual Energy Meridian immediately started to absorb the spiritual energy from the surroundings. This thing looked like a bottomless hole. Krune could feel that in a shorter span of time than the creation of the first Energy Meridian, the spiritual energy around him had already vanished after the creation of this one.

'Impressive! I wonder how this technique was created at all. It's just the second Energy Meridian, but the consumption of spiritual energy is definitely much higher than before. Fortunately, I'm prepared this time!'

Krune then brought the demon cores near him. Soon, the second Spiritual Energy Meridian started to absorb their spiritual energy like there was no tomorrow.

"Crack..."

"Crack..."

"Crack..."

"Crack..."

Soon, all four 6th Stage cores were gone, but the absorption didn't seem to stop at all.

Krune started to get a bit nervous. He put in a lot of effort to gather those six demon cores, after all. If he used all of them and the meridian still broke after that, he would want to cry but couldn't shed tears... literally.

"Crack..."

The first 7th Stage demon core was gone, and just when the energy of the second 7th Stage core was half consumed, the flow of energy finally started to slow down. Sadly, in the end, it was still not enough to finish the creation.

"Crack..."

The last demon core turned into powder, while the Energy Meridian still needed some more energy. Otherwise, it would break apart. Fortunately, Krune was at his peak at the moment, so he immediately used his own spiritual energy to finish the job.

After consuming almost all of Krune's reserve of spiritual energy, the second Spiritual Energy Meridian was finally complete. Just like before, it shone for some time before settling down. Krune could finally let out a sigh of relief.

'Alright, that was more dangerous than I expected. Even six demon cores aren't enough to complete its formation. In the future, I better get enough cores so that even if it goes beyond my predictions, I will still have enough to spare.'

Krune then went ahead and checked out his new meridian.

'Let's try out the results.'