After spending a long time trying to convince Krune never to do that again, Yusa went back to her room. Although she was successful in stopping Krune right when he was about to take his underpants, for a second, she still got a glimpse of that rainbow-colored hidden dragon inside. That image would follow her for life.
Back at Krune's room, he was considering his next step. The Mercenary Rank Team seemed very good, it would bring him combat experience and resources. Another thing he was thinking was if he should join a sect, a clan, or some other organization. The Mercenary Guild is very broad in this aspect. It isn't a sect, a clan, much less a government attached organization. The mercenaries are together for one sole purpose, mutual benefits! Because of this, the guild doesn't care if you join any other organization, sect, or clan, as long as you don't forget that you are a mercenary, of course.
But then Krune decided that there was no point in thinking about it now. He is still at the village beside Katiu forest, before leaving the danger zone, he won't be able to acquire much information. Even if he asks for it at the mercenary guild, it would be better to see it by himself when he arrives at Kaley City. Not to mention that his two 'good friends' are there too.
He decided to simply spend the rest of the day cultivating. Krune has to reinforce his planet foundation for the breakthrough, and time is limited, so the faster, the better.
The next day, Krune left his room with his hood up. He tried to hide from others while waiting for Yusa to come, too bad though, everyone had already taken notice of his robe with a hood, and it's color. Not to mention that the hood can't completely hide his hair, so it didn't take long for a bunch of people to come at him. Krune then used his wind movement to get away as fast as possible, and he went straight to the mercenary guild. Although everyone knows him there too, it's forbidden to cause ruckus inside.
Sometime later, Yusa also arrived, and she spotted Krune easily. She just had to look in the direction that the majority was watching too. She couldn't help but laugh, Krune had an ugly face while looked around. It was evident that he wanted people to look somewhere else. She then approached him.
"Well, well, it seems like you are really famous. I'm sorry to stop your joyous time in the limelight, but we need to go."
Krune heard that and felt even more helpless. He can see already that this Yusa girl loves to put salt on one's injuries, so he simply decided that he will ignore those comments from now on.
"So, should we join a group here in the mercenary guild and leave? I don't think it will be very difficult considering our fighting power."
Yusa then shook her head.
"On the opposite, it will be hard to find a group to join here. You are too famous, and you will definitely become a target as soon as you leave the village. I was thinking, and I believe it will be better for us to go alone. That way, we can leave the city without anyone notice and then join a group on the way. As long as everyone doesn't know that we left, we shouldn't have a problem."
Krune looked around and couldn't help but ask.
"How exactly do you expect me to leave without anyone noticing? Look around..."
Yusa just giggled a little and brought him to the salesroom. The building has quite a few of those rooms, this way, people and demon beasts could buy and sell things without anyone noticing. She then accessed the list of items and pointed at one of the items on the list. The item she pointed at cost 150 Rank Two low-quality spirit stones.
"Buy this one, its a Runestone inscribed with a very simple teleportation formation. Its quality is very bad, but it's just what we need at the moment, and make sure to don't let people see that you bought it."
Krune was impressed! To think that things that allow one to teleport are sold this easily. Isn't this minor teleportation formation as good as a second life? Yusa knew what he was thinking and crushed his fantasies straight away.
"Don't think to use it as a way to escape from others, this runestone needs a long time to charge, and it has nothing to do with your cultivation level. It's just that the amount of spiritual energy that it can receive at once is very small. If you try to infuse more than what it can take at once, it will break apart. Also, you need at least thirty minutes to charge it for use, and during that time, you can't move either. That's because the formation needs a starting point from where to initiate the teleportation from. If you keep moving around, it won't be able to fix a place."
"Simply put, if you are thinking about using it to flee, then you might as well run faster."
Krune's dreams were destroyed just like that. He then asked if there wasn't any better one that would allow one to teleport away earlier or maybe even instantly.
Yusa then nodded.
"There is, but it will need a higher level runestone. The problem is that the higher the level of the rune, the harder it is to inscribe a formation inside, which means the price skyrockets with each level. This teleportation rune is nothing but the lowest grade, a One-Star teleportation formation runestone. You can already guess how expensive the higher levels are. Just this one already costs 150 Rank Two spirit stone of low quality, it's very expensive."
She then moved the list of items for sale and pointed at the Rank Two teleportation formation runestone. This rune could be charged 10 minutes earlier than the previous one and could teleport a little further away. Still, not very suitable for fleeing, though. Not to mention that it costs 1150 Rank Three High-Quality spirit stones. Krune saw that and his jaw dropped!
"This is daylight robbery!"
Yusa laughed but disagreed.
"That's because you have no idea how hard it is to inscribe those runes. The quality of the formation inside is also higher, I would show you the higher rank ones. Unfortunately, this outer branch doesn't have them. People and demon beasts that stay here wouldn't have the necessary spirit stones to buy those anyway."
Krune nodded, maybe in the future he could try to make those runes for sale, who knows?
After getting a 25% discount from the guild, Krune acquired the teleportation runestone. He couldn't help but think that being famous really wasn't good at all, low key is the way to go.
"Wouldn't it work if I had put on a mask or painted my hair black or something?"
Yusa shook her head.
"Everyone has already marked your presence. You should know already that every person or demon beast has a very distinctive aura that belongs only to them. They just need to pay attention to that."
Krune only sighed after that. Yusa then said.
"When we go out of the room, just pretend that you helped me buying something. Otherwise, people might guess that we are together."
Krune just nodded.
Laving the room, Yusa grabbed Krune's arm and looked at him as if he was her lover.
"Brother Krune, thank you very much for helping me buying it, my rank wasn't big enough to have access to this item."
Krune wasn't expecting her to act like 'that,' he immediately turned as red as totato and kept nodding his head. Fortunately, it made the act even more realistic, some people around even commented.
"Seems like he has already fallen for the old trick."
"Obvious. Did you forget that this is Krune's first time leaving the forest? He still doesn't know how big the world is, that Four Stars Badge... sigh."
Yusa heard the comments around and was very satisfied. After acting a little more, she parted ways with him. Krune then went to take breakfast in the hotel's restaurant and then went back to his room. Yusa was the one who asked him to go take breakfast in the hotel restaurant first for people to see that he was back. Krune, of course, was very happy to do that, he didn't even need to act when food was involved.
Back in his room, Krune waited one hour. They had decided to leave during the day instead of the night because no one would think that they would do that. They agreed to a meeting point too, the runestone can at most teleport 20 kilometers of distance. But the further one teleported, the less accurate it would be, so they decided to meet 10 kilometers away from the village to be safe.
Sure enough, one hour passed, and he teleported close to the meeting point. A minute later, Yusa also appeared nearby. Their teleportation runestones broke after that.
"Let's not follow the road for now. It's better to get far away from the village first. Katiu Forest's danger zone is enormous, and it will take us a long time to arrive at Kaley City. When night time comes, we can go back to the main road. If everything goes okay, we should arrive in Kaley City in a week."
Krune nodded. He had already got a map of the region, so he knew that it wouldn't be a simple one or two days travel.
Nighttime came, and Yusa was getting a little tired. Although all cultivators can use all five elements, they usually specialize in one. Yusa was a water type, not very suited for speed, so she has a hard time to keep up with Krune. As for Krune? He didn't think he had any specialty, Krune simply used what he thought that was convenient, and it could be said that he is good at all elements.
Krune stopped and opted for them to rest. Not that he is a gentleman, hell no, he is a very realistic wisp! He simply thought that if they continued like that and got into a fight in the middle of the way, Yusa would drag him down if she wasn't in her best condition.
Yusa accepted the offer since she was exhausted.
They found an inconspicuous place and decided to stay there for the night, Yusa then took out a runestone and activated it.
"This is a simple concealing runestone formation, it will hide us for the time being. Different from the teleportation formation, low-level concealing formation is very easy to scribe. I believe even I would be able to make some of the lowest quality, so they are quite cheap and convenient."
She put it down, and then it looked like they disappeared from the surroundings. This low-level formation would only work for five to six hours, but it was enough sleeping time for her. She then took a few blankets and put on the ground, just when she was about to go sleep, she noticed that Krune was as awake as ever.
"Aren't you going to sleep too? You don't need to worry, this formation might be low level, but unless it is someone at the late stages of the Foundation Establishment or higher, they will not be able to see through it."
She then laughed a little
"Or could it be that you think I would do something to you during the night?"
Krune heard that but just shook his head, although they have met for a very little time, he doesn't think that Yusa is this type of person.
"That's not it, I simply can't sleep, and I have never slept in my life to start with."
That was to be expected, Krune is, after all, a wisp. Even though he has got a human body, the body itself was created through his spiritual energy. He can now feel the feelings of a human body, even having a child is possible too, but some other things never change. The fact the he doesn't need to sleep is one of them. Yusa looked surprised at him, how many races are out there that never sleep? Not many for sure. But she didn't pry into the issue, to ask a demon beast which race they are from is a taboo. No demon beast would show their real appearance in case some people have some ideas about their bloodlines or the materials that can be made from their bodies.
She then turned around and went to sleep, but before she could even close her eyes Krune asked her.
"Aren't you afraid that I could make something to you during the night instead?"
She then laughed.
"Nope! I have seen you battle at the Mercenary Exam, and I have an intuition that that wasn't your real power. Simply put, I think I would have no chance against you in a one vs. one battle. So if you really wanted, you could have done anything to me on our way out."
Krune was amazed by her answer, he then just laughed but declined to comment if her intuition was right or wrong.
As for Yusa, although she didn't lie, she wasn't 100% sure either. So without Krune noticing, she also used a perception technique that would alarm her if he got close while she was sleeping. It was useless though, Krune isn't this type of wisp to start with. For him, all types of relationships are to be cherished, except enmity ones, of course.
The night passed, and Krune used this time to cultivate. He took out quite a few Rank One or Two spirit stones and put them around him. He also made sure to keep his spiritual energy absorption inside the area that the spirit stones covered not to disrupt the outside or the concealing formation. The night passed without any mishaps, when Yusa woke up and saw Krune sit on the other side cultivating, she let out a sigh of relief. At least it doesn't seem like she was wrong about Krune.
Krune noticed that she woke up and then put the spirit stone that could still be used away.
"Ready?"
Yusa nodded, but she didn't take the concealing formation back. Every time a formation runestone is used, it will break apart after. There was no use to bring it back with her since she had quite a few more anyway, not to mention that they are quite cheap.
"We should go back to the road. Even if people notice now that we left, it is already too late."
She then took a hat from her spatial ring.
"Here, instead of using the hood, use this hat. Just put your hair back and cover with it, it should completely conceal the hair."
Krune nodded and did as he was told, sure enough, his hair wasn't appearing anymore.
"We should go and join a group. We moved really fast yesterday, so we definitely have caught up with the groups that don't know about what happened in the Mercenary Guild. As long as we show our mercenary badges, they would gladly take us in."
Krune agreed with this point of view and then they set off.
One hour later, they finally found a group with three Foundation Establishment and quite a few Qi Condensation cultivators. After showing their badges, the leader of the group also took his own Mercenary badge out. He was happy to bring those two together, there is safety in numbers after all.
Back at the village beside Katiu Forest, two-man were discussing in the hotel restaurant that Krune was before. One of them asked.
"Have you checked already?"
The other one nodded.
"Yes, I went there and knocked several times, but he simply didn't answer. I couldn't use my Divine Sense to pry inside because of the formations blocking it. Still, I found a way in, and there was no one inside the room, no one saw him either, so he probably used a teleportation rune to leave the village."
His partner then nodded.
"Send the signal, this Four Stars guy with a Universe Foundation is a mine of gold. We have to bring him back to the clan, as long as we convince him to sign a blood contract, everything will be fine. It has to be before they arrive at Kaley City, though."
The other man accepted the order and went out.