The Lizard Dragons looked at the two wisps strangely. In their eyes, there isn't too much of a difference in the way that they look, except that Krune energy body seemed a little bigger than the new guy.
Krune spent some time teaching the new wisp the basics, it would still take a while before he could speak. Also, he wanted to show him how to cultivate. Still, it was too early, he couldn't understand Krune just yet. Thinking about himself when he was a young wisp, he could remember that it took him around two months until he could finally understand words. Wisps might have extremely low life spans, but their intelligence is definitely ranked at the top. That's also why a wisp could achieve adult intelligence at the age of three. But Krune expects that he will be able to talk in one month more or less. After all, different from him, the new guy has a teacher.
Since Krune could only teach him slowly, he didn't force the matters. He spent some time with him every day between his practices, hunting, and cultivation. By now, Krune had already finished his breakthrough into the 9th stage of Qi Condensation. He was planning to go out to find some opponents to help him stabilize his cultivation. However, he didn't expect that those opponents would knock his door instead.
Two hundred kilometers away, a group of cultivators was making their way to the inner parts of the Katiu Forest. Their cultivation was quite high, with their leader being at the beginning of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Behind then, an old man at the 8th stage of the Qi Condensation followed closely. All the cultivators in this group, even their leader, showed utmost respect to him. That's because he is part of the Alchemist Guild, and the reason for them to come here was exactly to help him to acquire dragon blood for his concoctions.
Alchemists are extremely respected in the whole universe, even someone as low ranked as this man was no exception. Alchemists have a total of nine initial Stars, and even at his age, he is still at the first One. You could see it by taking a look at his badge on his robe, it had the symbol of a curled dragon and One Star at the top showing what his rank really is.
No one would dare to fake an Alchemist Badge, it was one of the greatest taboos. Alchemists that can create pills to help with one's cultivation path are rare, and it doesn't matter how low ranked they might be, there are very few who would try something at them. Once you buy a fight with an alchemist, you buy a fight with the entire guild. The alchemists' most terrifying part isn't their cultivation, nor are the pills that they concoct, but their connections. They usually have several strong and influential people on their backs who are willing to get their hands dirty for them.
The cultivator leader looked back at the old alchemist.
"Sir Casfer, we are almost there. According to our knowledge, the mountain range two hundred kilometers ahead is the lair of a group of Lizard Dragons. Although they obviously aren't real dragons, they do have a faint dragon bloodline. It should be enough for the task you need."
Casfer was the name of the low ranked alchemist, he was the one who contracted those group of cultivators to help him acquire some dragon blood. There aren't many demon beasts out there who have dragon bloodlines, but the Lizard Dragons just happen to be one of them.
"Hm, very well. As per the deal, once I get my hands on dragon blood, I'll concoct a one-star pill of your choice for each one of you. Don't forget that you must provide the materials for the pill, though."
The groups eyes lit up, even for their leader, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, one-star pills are very enticing, let alone for those other three at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation. They will obviously ask for the Foundation Establishment Pill, as for the leader, he is more interested in the cultivation stabilizing pill. He had just broken through the next realm and will take a long time to stabilize it. Unless he has something else to help him with that, that's where the cultivation stabilizing pills come into play.
"Alchemist Casfer has no need to worry, according to our information, the strongest Lizard Dragon in that mountain range is at the peak of the 8th stage of Qi Condensation. Although its faint dragon bloodline allows it to fight those with higher ranking, it won't be a problem for me. As for the rest, they won't be able to cause any trouble for Sir with my brothers around."
Casfer didn't care much about any of that, so he simply replied.
"Then I'm counting on you."
They kept on their journey, and a few hours later, they finally found their target. It was one of the Lizard Dragons sisters, she had finally broken through into the 6th stage thanks to all the demon cores that Krune got for her and her siblings. With that, she now had the power to defend herself outside. Except for the youngest Lizard Dragon, all the others had received Krunes permission to venture outside as long as they don't go too far away.
The cultivator leader looked at the Lizard Dragon far away and turned back to his companions.
"Here's the plan, don't kill that Lizard Dragon, all we know is that they occupy this mountain range. But we don't know where their lair is, so we need this one to show us the path. When you attack, make sure not to make any lethal injure. I will keep an eye out in case some other beast comes to bother you, now go."
The three 9th stage cultivator immediately rushed at the Lizard Dragon. The female Lizard Dragon felt the danger and tried to fight back. But just as she got severely injured in the first exchange, she understood that she wasn't their match and tried to flee. To its surprise, her enemies didn't try to stop it. The female Lizard Dragon is only at the 6th stage of Qi Condensation, and its intelligence is still very low. So it didn't think about something like that it might be bringing back home their foe, it just thought about running for her life.
The cultivators' group followed from a distance away, making sure that the female Lizard Dragon would not notice them. Sure enough, half an hour later, they saw that it entered a cave on the base of the mountain range. The cultivator leader's eyes immediately lit up after noticing that.
"Seems like it's here. Sir Casfer, please be careful, although I don't think anything can go wrong, it is still better to stay safe. So try to keep some distance behind us."
Casfer simply nodded.
"Let's go."
Inside the cave at the spiritual vein lake, Krune was finishing teaching the new wisp how to talk. After a month of practice, it could already understand most of the words and communicate fluently.
"Very well, it took me more than two months to be able to speak, but it only took you slightly more than a month. You should be grateful that you have someone to teach you, I didn't have such fortune.
By now, the new wisp had already acknowledged Krune as it's master. After hearing about the situation of the wisps outside, he couldn't help but feel extremely fortunate to have been born at the right time and the right place.
"Thank you, master. I think I should be able to finish the lectures by myself now."
Krune gave a mental thumbs up for him.
"Have you decided what your name will be? We wisps are used to give ourselves our own names, and Krune is the name I came up by myself."
The wisp looked with respect at Krune and replied.
"To be fair, master, I would like you to give me a name. You said that names are usually given by their parents on the other races. Although we wisps have no parents to speak of, I really consider you as if you are my father."
Krune was taken aback, sure it was common for the other races to give their offsprings a name, but he didn't expect that this guy liked him that much.
"A name..."
"In fact, I'm not too good at giving names either, and now that I think about it, my own name has no reason behind it. I just thought that it was good, that's all. Are you sure you want me to do it for you?"
The wisp immediately agreed.
"Hum... you were born above the spiritual vein lake. From what I could see from your personality, you are most likely to become a man instead of a woman once you take your human form at the Foundation Establishment.
Alright, from now on you are called Lakin.
Lakin was very pleased with his name. Although he knows that his master's thoughts were very simple while thinking about that, it was still a name chosen by him. That was what he wanted.
"Now I will impart you my Myriad Energies cultivation. This technique is considered extremely common outside. But make no mistake, the one that I'm impart-"
Suddenly, Krune heard the Lizard Dragons cry, he looked surprised at the entrance of the cave room and noticed the other four Lizard Dragons rushing out.
"Lakin, you stay here, You haven't cultivated yet, so it's too dangerous for you outside, I will take a look and be right back.
Lakin immediately accepted the order.
In the middle of the way, he noticed the female Lizard Dragon on the ground. She couldn't move anymore due to her injuries. After seeing that, Krune's mood immediately went dark. Who dares to touch his protegees?
He poured spiritual energy into the female Lizard Dragon to stabilize her condition. He then ordered the other four to drag her back to the spirit lake. Right after, he spread his Divine Sense outwards. Now that Krune was at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation realm, his Divine Sense could cover a total of 700 meters radius. It didn't take long for him to see the group of cultivators making their way into the cave.
His mood went gloomy. Between them, there were three cultivators at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation while the man at the front had a cultivation that he couldn't even read. It could only mean one thing.
'Foundation Establishment!'
As for the Alchemist Casfer, because he stayed far behind, he hasn't entered Krune's Divine Sense Range, so Krune couldn't see him.
At the same time that Krune spread his Divine Sense, the cultivator group noticed when it probed them. They immediately spread their own Divine Sense back to see who was checking on them. Still, to their surprise, they couldn't see who it was. The only exception was the Foundation Establishment leader. Thanks to his higher cultivation, his Divine Sense could cover almost 700 meters too. But for some reason, his face was showing awkwardness when he saw what laid ahead.
His companions noticed the change in his expression, one of them couldn't help but ask.
"What is it? Could it be that that Divine Sense just now was from the Lizard Dragon leader?"
The other cultivators immediately went on alert, though.
"How could that be? The information says that it has a cultivation at the peak of the 8th stage. Even if it had made a breakthrough, it would still be at the 9th stage, just like our own. Demon Beasts usually have a smaller coverage when we talk about Divine Sense, but we couldn't see anything. For it to have such a long-range Divine Sense, it would need to at least be at the Foundation Establishment. And if that's the case, we might as well turn around and leave immediately."
The cultivator who made the question could only nod, his companion's analysis is very plausible. If there is a Foundation Establishment Lizard Dragon ahead, they would be only courting death to press forward.
On the other hand, their leader only made a simple question that they couldn't expect.
"Is that a Wisp?"
His companions looked strangely at him. A wisp? How could that be? That Divine Sense from Earlier was very strong! Their own Divine Sense couldn't even compare to the later, they couldn't help but wonder if their leader was hallucinating or something.
"Are you sure you are seeing things correctly? There is no way that Divine Sense could be coming from a wisp, right? I've never heard about a wisp with a Divine Sense so strong before. First of all, can wisps even reach the cultivation level necessary to obtain a Divine Sense?"
That wasn't just the leader's companions doubt, the leader himself was just as puzzled. According to his Divine Sense, the wisp in front had really reached the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation. Not only that, but the Lizard Dragons around him were following its orders. He knows very well that both beasts and cultivators only see wisps as cultivation resources, so he also wondered if he is getting crazy.
A while later he started to laugh.
"Seems like we hit the jackpot! That wisp is really at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation! Do you have any idea how much a wisp at the 9th stage would be worth in the city? Let alone one pill, we will have enough money to buy tens of pills. Even two or three-star pills should not be a problem at all."
His companions got excited too, it was really a windfall for them. They could already see the moment that they also broke through the Foundation Establishment realm, how could they not be happy?
The leader looked at them and spoke through his Divine Sense. One of the uses of Divine Sense was that one could communicate without being afraid of being heard. At most, others would only be able to tell that they are speaking with each other, but there is no way they could listen to what was being said.
"Alright! Wisps are extremely fast at running, and this one should be even more so. To guarantee that it will not escape, I will guard the rear. At the same time, you guys will take your time to capture it. Even if it had reached the 9th stage, it couldn't possibly be your match, after all. Fortunately, we brought our wisp net too. As for the Lizard Dragons, I still haven't found that 8th stage one. So I will keep my Divine Sense spread, and if it appears, I will give you cover. Remember, that wisp is our main priority! After we capture it, we can spend our time getting those Lizard Dragons for Sir Casfer behind us."
Everyone nodded their heads and started moving forward.
Back in the cave, Krune saw everything that happened ahead. Although he couldn't hear what they were saying, it was way too easy to understand what they planned to do. The Foundation Establishment cultivator was following the group quite some distance behind. But Krune mentally smirked at that sight, he retreated his Divine Sense and prepared himself.
'So you think your friends are more than enough to deal with me, right? Haha, you have just sent them to their deaths.'
Krune's new merged skills are finally about to be shown to the world.
