The cultivator group pressed forward, ahead of them, they could see that the space inside the cave started to get bigger. It just so happens that they got to the place where Krune had battled the Lizard Dragon leader. They also noticed the mess on the ground. It was evident that the stalactites from the roof had fallen down not too long ago, but that also meant that they won't see that happen any time soon. It takes hundreds if not thousands of years for those stalactites to form, it's simply impossible for them to form again on the roof without any outside help.
Further ahead, Krune could already see the approaching bunch, but he was feeling very calm. He had gone through quite a few battles recently and couldn't feel nervous anymore, this is the gift of experience.
'I guess that the old trick should work with those three. Indeed, there is nothing better than being a wisp in a situation like this one, they are really underestimating me. But it also pisses me off, your grandfather here will show you what a real wisp is capable of.'
Sure enough, Krune was right, they didn't put him in their eyes at all. The cultivator in the middle of the group then sent a Divine Sense message to his companions.
"Alright, let's finish it quickly. For this wisp to have reached the 9th of Qi Condensation, it might have some tricks under his belt. Still, there is nothing to be afraid of. I will use my earth protection and march forward. When it attacks me, you two rush to the sides and throw the net. But wait for me to block the attack first, though. As soon as that happens, I will rush forward and keep it occupied so that it won't run away, got it?"
The other two cultivators agreed. The one who spoke is specialized in the earth element, so he is the best to be the vanguard. At the same time, the Foundation Establishment leader behind kept his Divine Sense spread out. Although it consumes a lot of spiritual energy, he thinks that this battle will not take more than a few seconds, at most a minute.
Krune also kept the play, he floated left and right as if trying to find a way to pass through them and escape. Good thing that wisps had no face or bodily expressions to start with. Thanks to that, it was too easy to fool those guys ahead.
"Haha! Look at that, it still thinks it can escape, let's go."
The earth element cultivator rushed forward, and his two companions were right at his back, waiting for the signal. They quickly closed the distance. For them, it was too easy to deal with this wisp. In their eyes, Krune was as good as a captured wisp already.
Krune then pretended to reach a dead-end by mistake. When the cultivators noticed this, their confidence got even higher. On the other hand, their guard against Krune dropped even more. Krune saw that, and he started to form his wind blades above his head. When the earth element cultivator saw what Krune was about to use, he almost burst in laughter.
'Does this wisp think he can really break my defense with some puny wind blades? He must be dreaming!'
The earth element cultivator sprinted forward, and the two behind had their wisp nets ready for use. Everything was going according to the plan. Just when they were about to rush to the sides to trap Krune, something unbelievable happened. Right in front of them, their earth element cultivator companion was split in three! Two blazing wind blades passed through his body and went flying straight at them. Immediately, despair appeared on their faces!
'Skill merge! Wind element and Fire element, Blazing Wind Blades!'
Fast, those blades are too fast!
The Foundation Establishment cultivator behind noticed it before them and cried out.
"DODGE!"
But it was too late. The two blazing wind blades cut through the last two cultivators like a knife cutting butter. And their eyes showed their astonishment! They could only think one thing. In fact, the earth element cultivator companion ahead of them had the same thought before dying a second ago.
'Since when wisps are this strong?'
There was only black now, and the three of them died just like that.
But that wasn't the end, those blazing wind blades didn't slow down at all and flew straight at the Foundation Establishment leader. He was alarmed! But his cultivator was higher than Krune, and he was in the next realm, after all. He then immediately dodged, jumping to the side, and the blazing wind blades passed by him. He could even feel the scourging heat coming from them. The blades hit the wall behind the leader and went through it, no one knows how deep they have gone before losing their power.
But it wasn't over yet! As soon as he touched the ground, he noticed something wrong, the ground wasn't solid anymore! The Foundation Establishment cultivator immediately plummeted down.
'Skill merge! Earth element and Fire element, Lava Lake!'
The cultivator immediately used his spiritual energy to created a barrier to protect himself from the heat. As soon as his feet touched the ground under the small lava pond, he used all his strength to jump. Still, just as his head appeared outside the lava pond, he stopped. Not because he wanted to, but because he couldn't move any more! Turns out that the lava around him had suddenly solidified!
It was then that he noticed that the temperature all around him had plummeted!
'Skill merge! Earth, Fire and Water element, Stone Prison!'
This was Krune's idea to stop strong enemies from moving. As long as he could catch them off guard, he would use lava lake and a water element attack to solidify the lava, imprisoning his target.
The leader couldn't believe it, he saw everything that happened with his Divine Sense, but he didn't pay attention to what happened under him. That wisp had prepared to throw two wind blades at the cultivator on the forefront. But suddenly, those wind blades that shouldn't present any danger became fiery red! Their speed was inconceivable, it seemed like it could slash and burn everything in its path. It was truly a fearsome attack that even he wouldn't dare to block. That would be suicide!
When the two cultivators behind the first one only noticed the blazing winds blades, it was already too late to dodge.
The incredible thing was that those blades didn't lose any power and directly flew at him. Because of his surprise, he was late to react and could only jump to the side.
But who could have thought that everything that happened was for the sole purpose of baiting him into the trap?
The end result was a Foundation Establishment being captured by a wisp instead of the other way around. He was bound never to forget what happened today.
A moment later, he came back to himself, he knows what that blazing wind blade and lava lake are.
'Skill merge! Impossible! He is just a wisp! How can he use skill merge? This is not something you should be able to see in a place like this, much less being used by a wisp!'
'No, first of all, that was something that needs two cultivators to work together to achieve the desired result perfectly. If you want to use skill merge alone, you will need to at least be in the late stages of the Foundation Establishment realm to control two elements at the same time. And even so, this is something very hard to achieve. Still, this wisp is obviously at the Qi Condensation realm, such a thing should be impossible!'
All of this took some time to explain. But in fact, it happened in just a few seconds. The leader calmed himself down and looked at the wisp as he would against a great foe. All his disdain had disappeared entirely! It was evident that he was taking Krune extremely serious now. That blazing wind blade had an attack power that wasn't the list bit weaker than his own attacks, and both the Lava Lake and Blazing Wind Blade were skills that he would never be able to use at his level.
Krune looked at him and spoke.
"Well, well, that's a first!"
"During my entire life, everyone who looked at me only showed disdain or greed, mainly greed, though. After all, wisps are supposed to be worth a lot in the cities, am I right? But this is the first time that I see a cultivator looking at me seriously. I have to say that it feels very good to finally be regarded as something else than a cultivation resource in someone's eyes."
The cultivator leader was taken aback. He knows that adult wisps can talk, and he had heard a few of them do so before. But this is the first time he heard such a self-confident wisp. It only made him put his guard even higher. But he could only stare at Krune, who was moving close to him.
"I'm surprised myself. But first of all, let me introduce myself, my name is Gony. I admit, when I first saw you with my Divine Sense, I had thought that I hit the jackpot. A wisp like you is bound to be worth tens if not hundreds of times more than any other wisp out in the market."
"But for me to be able to get that money, I would need to capture you alive, and I'm 100% sure that even if I win a fight against you, there would be no way I could capture you. And that is considering that I'm on the victorious side, which I'm obviously not. Your attack power is by no means any weaker than mine."
"So what about we do it like this? I will simply leave, and you will go back to your life. You already killed three of my companions, so it should be enough for you, right?"
Krune was a little surprised. He was expecting that this cultivator would feel humiliated at the fact that his companions died, and he got captured by a wisp. He was sure that he would attack straight away if he could do so, but it seemed like this person can think things more thoroughly.
"Interesting, although I can't let you leave that easily, are you not angry at the fact that I killed your companions or the fact that I captured you?"
The leader looked at Krune with caution before saying.
"There is nothing wrong with it. First of all, my skills were inferior to yours, so I lost."
"Second, we all underestimated you from the very beginning. Just because you are a wisp, we thought that you simply couldn't do anything against us. At most, you would find a way to escape. But it has never occurred to us that we could possibly die here."
"So I can't blame anyone else other than myself at the moment. You might not know this, but we have a certain law in this country. Anyone who decides to enter danger zones like this Katiu Forest must sign an agreement of responsibility. They will agree that anything that might happen here has nothing to do with the state, even if they die."
"The government is clear about the risks of adventuring the danger zones and only if you aren't afraid of the consequences should you enter them."
"So, my answer to your question is 'no.' Be it my companions or me, we only formed this group for the sake of profit a few days ago, so we don't know each other that much to start with."
Krune was truly surprised this time, he didn't expect that the world outside was so 'organized.' His curiosity was immediately picked. He is planning to leave this place when he achieves the Foundation Establishment, and knowledge from the outside will be very useful. Most of the things he knows came from what he heard from other wisps and from what he could prob from the nearby villages outside the forest, after all.
But before he could start making his questions, the cultivator stopped him.
"Before you ask more, you should know that we didn't come alone. Don't worry, I'm not threatening you. Our task was to collect dragon blood from those Lizard Dragons for the alchemist at the entrance. He is a member of the alchemist guild, and you probably would get much more information from him than me. All I ask you is to let us go after you finish answering your questions."
Krune wasn't surprised by this. Those who venture into the inner parts of Katiu Forest would usually have some backup plans. Suddenly, Krune had an idea. He went outside and quickly captured Casfer, he then brought him to where Gony was and explained the rules.
"I will separate the two of you, and I will make the same questions. If the answer of one of the two of you diverge from the other, then you can't blame me for what happens next. Your friends ahead are a good example of the outcome of pissing me off."
He put Casfer under the eyes of the Lizard Dragons and ordered them that if he tried to run, they could eat him. But they better not try to do that too without reason, or they will suffer even more than their big brother did back then when it tried to steal Krune's demon cores.
To be sure, he left Lakin overseeing the situation just in case.
Casfer is an alchemist, and he has no battle power what so ever. He was already almost pissing himself from this situation. Even if his cultivation was higher than the Lizard Dragons, he would have very little chance of escaping. Also, if he did, Casfer has no idea how he would pass through Krune. So he obediently waited.
'This is the best opportunity I've had so far to understand the outside world. Feifei and old Feng were just passing by to fix their spaceship, they are not from this world. They wouldn't know much about my planet anyway, so I better use this chance well.'
And just like that, the round of questions and answers started.