Just like that, two months went by.
On a small crevice on a mountain wall, one could see something coming out. It shines quite a bit, but because it's day time, it doesn't appear too catchy. There is only one race in this forest that looks like that, and they are wisps.
That wisp, of course, was Krune. After this last time in seclusion, he had finally broken through into the 6th stage of the Qi Condensation Realm! This 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 shows how formidable the true form of the Myriad Energies technique is.
Cultivation wasn't the only thing Krune practiced during the last two months. He also improved his control over the wind element so that it could be used for more things than just wind blades. Krune could now manipulate the wind around him to move twice as faster. With the improvement of his cultivation on top of that, his speed is now at least four to five times higher than what it was when he first entered seclusion. If he had this 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 to mention is that with his new Spiritual Energy Meridian, his control over the spiritual energy has reached a totally new level. Not only can he absorb spiritual energy much faster, but he can also release and gain control over the tasks applied to it just as fast. This type of control over the spiritual energy should be something that only those at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation should be able to!
Krune also developed new skills for defense and attack, they are earth element wall and spike!
Well, in fact, there is nothing new about it. Any cultivator wouldn't have too much of a problem to get their hands on an earth element defense skill like those two. The incredible thing about it is that Krune had absolutely no manual or even a shadow of a teacher to help him during the learning time, he learned all by himself!
It's not like other cultivators can't learn this kind of skill by themselves too. However, to do that in just two months without any reference while still having time to breakthrough three small realms, this is just unthinkable!
Krune, of course, had no idea about any of that. He just cared about survival and improvement, he didn't think he did anything amazing.
'With this, I should be able to get 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 the place. There is no way that those spirit veins owner beasts could stop the spiritual energy from flowing out, so the concentration here is bigger than outside. Even if I acquire just a low level one, the spirit energy available for me should still be much higher than simply staying in the inner regions.'
Krune then started moving around the borders of the inner region, and thanks to his higher level of cultivation, he could now feel the beasts around him much easier. As long as they are not at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation or higher, he would have no problem in perceiving them ahead of time.
Of course, Krune's idea wasn't to simply avoid battle, he was also looking for lonely beasts of the 6th or 7th stage to practice, he needed their cores after all.
It didn't take long for him to find one. Around 200 meters ahead, he could see a Three-Tailed Demon Leopard drinking water from a pond on the ground. This is an agility type demon beast that usually varies between the 5th to 8th stage of Qi Condensation. In compensation, their attacks are not that strong. 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 himself.
'Since that was the case, I might as well grab it's attention straight away.'
Krune got closer, and when he was at 100 meters of distance, he shot a wind blade. With his higher level of cultivation, the strength, and the distance that he can cast his blades are 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, his eyes focused on Krune a 100 some meters away, and it quickly went after him.
Krune already expected that, but he didn't do anything. His aim is 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 really lacked experience. He knew that the leopard was fast, but he forgot to think about 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 himself while using wind movement to retreat. But the impact sound against the wall that he was waiting for did not come. On the side, Krune noticed the leopard's figure, it had dodged the wall in the last moment and immediately threw itself at him.
Krune was alarmed! He quickly released the wind compressed ball that was at his side, blasting him and the leopard away from each other in the last second. 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 plans 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 the Katiu Forest, it had gone through several battles in its life. Even though its intelligence is not 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 fast speed and reaction time like the demon leopard, this kind of mistake could have been fatal.
The leopard got even angrier. 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. 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 wind compressed 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, and 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 abruptly that the leopard 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 around, but it couldn't be trifled with. The earth wall only resisted for about a second and finally 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 of how to use it.
Krune didn't dare to delay. From above, one could see that several wind blades had finished casting and shot straight at the demon leopards neck. But the leopard wasn't any slower than Krune and dodged to the side. Unfortunately for it, as soon as it dodged, an earth spike shot from the ground. The leopard was alarmed! It tried to dodge again, but was too late. Although it didn't hit it's 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 his 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 to pieces. Its severed parts fell to the ground, and the light in its eyes disappeared.
'Sigh... I really don't like the sensation of killing. But if I wait for the others to attack me first just so that I could have a reason to strike back, there will be a time when I will not be able to react fast enough. In the end, the offense is the best defense.'
Now that Krune is 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 battle one or two more times. But with the blood smell coming from the leopard's corpse, what is waiting for Krune isn't just one or two beasts, but several of them.
Krune immediately cut the leopard's head, controlled his spiritual energy to grab the demon core, and swiftly left. Different from before, he now could move much faster with his higher cultivation and control over the wind element. Before the other beast even started to approach the leopard's corpse, Krune had been 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 that. 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 test his never-before-tested defense skills. Indeed, Krune is a very 'cautious' wisp.
A week later, on the 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 are considered the weakest race of the universe, but it wasn't like they didn't have any good traits. One of them is their immunity to any bodily poisons. Unless the poison is also able to affect the soul, wisps will 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, 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.'
Krune pondered a little more and decided that it was indeed the case. He is also at the peak of the 6th stage, the battles he had stimulated his potential and understanding of the use of the Energy Meridian. He just needs to find a secluded place where he wouldn't be disrupted during the second Spiritual Energy Meridian creation. Krune finished to restore his spiritual energy and immediately set off to find it.
It didn't take long to find one, though. This forest is the lair of several demon beasts, and the majority have 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 one was a 6th stage Qi Condensation Blood Eyed Rabbit. Although this type of rabbit is quite fast, it couldn't compare with the Three-Tails 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 has absolutely no need for air. Also, spiritual energy is all-encompassing. As long as special formations aren't in place to prevent the flow, anywhere you go in this world will have the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Things like walls of caves are the same as empty air to it.
'With this Blood Eyed Rabbit demon core, now I have two 7th stage demon cores and four 6th stage ones. It should be enough. There is a bottleneck between the 6th and 7th stages of the Qi Condensation. Although I'm confident of achieving a breakthrough, I will take quite some time with just 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 one. He already had the experience of creating the first. However, even though he hasn't failed the creation of the second one yet, it was still taking a lot more time to finish than the first Energy Meridian.
'As I thought. Just like when I was creating the pseudo meridians, every time I start a new one, it will take longer to form. It seems like the fused Energy Meridians follow the same principle as the Pseudo ones.'
"Click"
This was the second time that Krune has 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 time than the first Energy Meridian creation, 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. But this time, I'm prepared!'
Krune brought the demon cores near, and 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 like to stop at all.
Krune started to get nervous, he put a lot of effort to gather those six demon cores, after all. If he used all of then and the meridian still break after that, he would want to cry but have no 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. But in the end, it was still not enough in the finish the creation.
"Crack..."
The last demon core became powder, and the Energy Meridian still needed some more energy; otherwise, it would break apart. Fortunately, Krune was at his peak at the moment, and 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 complete. And 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 were not enough to finish its formation completely. In the future, I better get enough cores so that even if it goes above my predictions, I will still have enough to spare.'
Krune then got ready to check his new meridian.
'Let's try out the results.'