Chapter 9: 9
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Around 400 meters from where the Lizard Dragon Leader and his last subordinate were, Krune was at a very spacious part of the cave, this cave was enormous to start with, he had just finished his preparations and he couldn't help but to give a self compliment for his ingenuity.
'I might not have enough attack power to breakthrough your defense, but it doesn't mean that mother nature can't.'
It didn't take long for him to see his enemy incoming, Lizard Dragons might not be that fast, but as an 8th and 7th stage Lizard Dragons, they were still much faster than any normal beast, in the blink of an eye they were already a 100 meters away from Krune, if Krune could smile he would be doing so now.
'Here they come, the 7th stage lizard isn't important, a direct confrontation with it would be problematic but I'm confident I can still win, the problem is the leader, if I don't break its scales then I can only turn tail and run.'
When the Lizard Dragon leader saw Krune, it was taken a little aback, it might still not have developed a high level of intelligence, but it was sure that when it felt that Divine Sense earlier, the one that had come was definitely the one who had killed all of his subordinates, the leader was coming with the intention of get revenge.
But turns out that all it can see is nothing more than a wisp? Where is the perpetrator? It stopped for a second and scanned his surroundings with his own Divine Sense, usually, beasts are not very specialized in the maters of soul, in fact the majority is at a lower level than ordinary human cultivators, let alone races like the Spirit Race, because of that their Divine Sense doesn't have too much of a coverage, this Lizard Dragon Leader Divine Sense could at most reach 100 meters.
But even so all it could see is the wisp in front of it, in the end being the weakest race had its own good traits, to be underestimated is a very good one of them, the Lizard Dragon clearly dropped it's guard quite a lot, the same could be said for it's companion, since this wisp had come to deliver itself on the lizard doorsteps, it wouldn't be polite.
The beast's low intelligence played it's part here, if the Lizard Dragon leader had thought a little more, it wouldn't have forgotten that what caught it's attention at first was a... Divine Sense! Only those who have achieved the 7th of Qi Condensation would have a Divine Sense, since Krune was the only one here, it was obvious that he had to be the one who used the Divine Sense earlier, but such train of thought had not even appeared it the leaders mind, in fact, even if it had, the Lizard Dragon probably wouldn't care, at most it would be a little more alert.
The leader and it's companion rushed forward, not paying attention to anything else, when they were just fifty some meters of distance, Krune activated his trap, immediately the cave started to tremble, the lizards got alarmed with the sudden development, but they didn't know was was happening, nor did they have the time to think because above of them, enormous stalactites were falling down, who knows how many years it took for those stalactites to form, their attack power wasn't something that Krune's earth spikes could match at moment.
In an instant, hundreds of stalactites fell and the two lizard dragons immediately tried to dodge, but too bad, if they escaped this calamity so easily Krune's plan would have been worth nothing, he already expected for it, the moment they tried to dodge, earth walls erected around the two, the Lizard Dragon leader was enraged, at any other moment this puny wall would only need one blow of its tail or claws to crumble apart, but it had no time for that now.
"Boom, boom, boom"
It wasn't before a minute later that everything calmed down, even Krune was a little afraid of what he saw, he didn't expect for this plan to create such a tumult, he just prepared a limited space of those stalactites above to fall inside of his earth wall trap, but those stalactites created a chain reaction that made a lot more to come down from the surroundings, even as much as 10 meters ahead Krune could see a few of them, he could have buried himself here.
'Scary, mother nature can't be trifled with after all, even if that Lizard Dragon leader survived this assault it has definitely suffered grievous injuries, it worked much better than I thought though, let's take a look first.'
Krune first got rid of the earth walls around the crumbled down place so that he could see better, to his surprise, although the 7th stage Lizard Dragon died, the 8th stage Lizard Dragon was still on it's last breaths, there was a stalactite impaled on the back, it definitely couldn't move anymore, it looked at the wisp in front of it with hatred, but soon the light on it's eyes dimmed, the mountain range tyrant was finally dead.
Seeing the hatred on the Lizard Dragon's eyes only made Krune sigh.
'It looked at me like that, but how many wisps did it eat until today? The inner parts of the forest have higher concentration of spiritual energy, the number of wisps born here are definitely much higher than those outside, but they usually wouldn't even have time to form their conscience before being eaten and have their energy absorbed by demon beasts like you.'
Wisps are really a pitiful lot, be it humans, beasts or even common animals, the majority would always have parents that would take care of them until they could fend for themselves, but what about wisps? They are born from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, what parent is that to talk about? Krune didn't feel the list bit of guilty, although he didn't like killing, he wasn't idiot to the point that he thought he would achieve greatness by being a pacifist, even if he doesn't make the first move, the other will definitely do so.
Krune took quite some time to open the Lizard Leader's head, if not for this cave stalactites, he probably would have to wait until he at least got to the 8th stage of the Qi Condensation to have a chance at getting rid of the resistance on this spiritual vein, Krune spent most of his life running from both wisp hunters and demon beasts alike, caves were definitely inside the scope of his hiding places, he had witnessed how dangerous those stalactites could be before.
'As expected of a race with a feint dragon bloodline, their demon cores have much more spiritual energy than those ordinary beasts at the same level.'
After collecting everything Krune went further into the cave, it was time to see the spiritual vein by himself, a few minutes later, Krune entered a cave room that was even bigger than the place where he had set up his trap, the cave walls had an azure hue and at the center one could see an small lake of a few tens of meters long, it was a very beautiful scene. On the side of the lake one could see the crude nests that the Lizards had made for them to rest, the biggest one was obviously the Lizard Dragon leader's.
Krune was just about to approach when he suddenly heard some yearning sounds coming from behind the nests, he carefully approached, his air compressed ball place right in front of him, if something launched an attack at him he would be able to quickly escape, ever since Krune used the this strategy against the Four Winged Demon Crow he never entered a battle without one.
At the same time, several wind blades above his head were ready to be shot.
But when he finally saw what it was all his tension deflated like a balloon, turns out that those yearning sounds were the off springs of the Lizard Dragons, the biggest one didn't even reach a third of the size of the 6th stage Lizard Dragons that he first killed outside, but Krune was also quite impressed, of the five little ones the weakest one was already at the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation! And it was obviously that this one was born not long ago.
'To be born directly at the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation, what an envious thing, I wonder how many other races have the same capability, wisps are really a weak bunch.'
The big brother of the group was at the peak of the 4th stage, it looked with hostility at Krune, it put itself in front of the smaller ones and let out several small roars, it was clearly going to put it's life on the line to protect his little brothers and sisters, Krune looked at it and couldn't help find it intriguing, four months ago Krune would only be able to flee at the sight of a peak 4th stage Qi Condensation demon beast, but now he found it's stance quite cute.
'I wonder how good it is to have a family, this lizard still hasn't developed it's intelligence to be able to think straight, but it still knows how to put the safety of the family above it's own interest.'
Thinking about it made him remember Wang Feifei, that day when she made him promise that he would marry her and only her, soon after Krune started to laugh. Even though he will try to keep that promise, he knows very well that this is quite a helpless wish, first of all Feifei was only a Kid, by the time he gets strong enough to go where she is, she will probably have married someone else already, even if she hasn't, she would just think about that day as a Kid's selfishness. But doesn't mater, for Krune, that was still a very good memory that he cherishes very much.
Krune pondered a bit about what to do with those Lizard Dragons, if he let them go there might come a day when they mature and eat other wisps, on the other side, Krune isn't a blood thirsty fellow, he didn't even like killing to start with.
In the end he couldn't bring himself to do anything, now that the adults are all dead their chances of survival is pretty small, and Krune had never killed just for the sake of killing, every single battle he had until today was against opponents of similar level to himself, situations where if he had lost it would have been his death instead, those little ones pose absolutely no threat to him what so ever.
----
After ignoring the little Lizard Draons, Krune went to the small lake to take a look, inside he could see a crystalline white spiritual vein rooted in the earth, the water had the same limpid azure color, the concentration of spirit energy around was the highest he has ever felt, and this is just a very low level spiritual vein, it made Krune wonder how good the high level ones are.
Krune was planing to stay here until he breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment, only after doing that would he be able to attain his human form, but first he had to recover his spiritual energy, the amount used to set up those traps back then used more than half of his reservoir, it's always good to stay at peak state in case the train went out of the rails, those who are prepared live longer. After recovering he will immediately start his cultivation, he needs to create the third meridian, with that his cultivation speed will go a step further again.
----
One week later, Krune had reached half way through the 7th stage of Qi Condensation, he thought it was about time to create the third Spiritual Energy Meridian, when when he was about to start the process, he heard cries coming from the little Lizard Dragons, it was different from before, he wondered what was it about, he got closer to take a look just to see that the small guys seemed a little weak.
'Why is it happening? I don't remember to have done anything for them to turn out like this.'
It didn't take long for Krune to understand.
'Of course! How could I have forgotten? They aren't wisps like me, they need to eat in order to grow up.'
Krune felt like a headache was coming, the lizards looked at him as if they were waiting for him to do something, he was dumbfounded, he wasn't their parents, they should be grateful that he didn't kill them to end all the trouble. Krune decided to ignore them and went back to the lake to prepare for the third meridian creation, the cries didn't stop though, he kept ignoring it at first, but with time it started to really bother him, he couldn't concentrate at all!
'Ahhhhhh! Fine! I will get some food for you, fuc*ing sake, why am I even bothering with it?!'
An hour later Krune came back with a demon deer corpse, he couldn't use that demon bear corpse anymore, it had already rotted quite a bit and he didn't know it it would affect the lizards. The demon deer was an ordinary beast of the 6th stage, usually demon deers walk in groups, although it was a little dangerous to provoke a big group, with Krune's intelligence, it didn't take long for him to get one of them to separate from their group, after that it wasn't anything hard for him to kill a 6th stage ordinary beast anymore as long as it was only one.
The pack noticed that they lost one of their group, but since their where close to the Lizard Dragons nest, they didn't dare to enter the lizards territory to look for it, it will still take a very long time until other beasts notice that the Lizard Dragons are gone, their aura could still be felt around the mountain range.
When the little ones saw the deer corpse their eyes lit up, Krune simply threw it close to them and let nature play it's course, their cries finally stopped, even the big bother of the group looked a little more intimate now, Krune didn't care though, he went back to the lake to restart his third meridian creation, but he couldn't help but think.
'Is it me or they all grew up quite a bit?'
Krune threw this thought to the back of his mind, so what if the grow even more? It has nothing to do with him.
An hour later Krune was ready to start again, the demon cores were ready as well...
The demon cores were ready...
The demon cores...
Demon cores...
Cores...
"WHERE ARE THE DEMON CORES?!"
He was sure that he left the demon cores beside the lake before, he immediately spread his Divine Sense to its max range coverage, everything in a 500 meters radius could be seen, but other than the Lizard Dragons there wasn't anything else.
'Could it be that some beast came in earlier while I was out and took the cores away? Impossible! With the Lizard Dragons aura still in place only a 9th stage of the Qi Condensation beast or above would dare to come, and usually they have their own spiritual veins, they wouldn't look for a fight without reason, furthermore, if they saw that this spiritual vein was empty, they definitely wouldn't have left.'
Suddenly, Krune remembered that the little ones seemed to have grown quite a bit while he was out, not only that but their auras are stronger than before too, when he checked their cultivation he felt like crying but had no tears... Well, wisps have no tears to start with.
All five of them have had a cultivation breakthrough while he was out, their big bother was even at the peak of the 5th stage of the Qi Condensation!
A minute later all of them had already finished eating and sprinted in Krune's direction, he was already fuming and they even dare to attack him? Courting Death!
Just as Krune was about to shoot wind blades and get rid of them, he noticed something weird, different from all those who had attacked him until today, those little ones had no hostility on their faces, let alone hostility, they looked very... Happy?
Once they got close they started jumping around him and crying in his direction as if trying to court his favor, Krune looked at them and his angriness deflated like a balloon, in the end he could only sigh.
"Feifei, my love, please forgive your fiancé, seems like he has got some kids of his own..."
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Around 400 meters from where the Lizard Dragon Leader and his last subordinate were, Krune was at a very spacious part of the cave, this cave was enormous to start with, he had just finished his preparations and he couldn't help but to give a self compliment for his ingenuity.
'I might not have enough attack power to breakthrough your defense, but it doesn't mean that mother nature can't.'
It didn't take long for him to see his enemy incoming, Lizard Dragons might not be that fast, but as an 8th and 7th stage Lizard Dragons, they were still much faster than any normal beast, in the blink of an eye they were already a 100 meters away from Krune, if Krune could smile he would be doing so now.
'Here they come, the 7th stage lizard isn't important, a direct confrontation with it would be problematic but I'm confident I can still win, the problem is the leader, if I don't break its scales then I can only turn tail and run.'
When the Lizard Dragon leader saw Krune, it was taken a little aback, it might still not have developed a high level of intelligence, but it was sure that when it felt that Divine Sense earlier, the one that had come was definitely the one who had killed all of his subordinates, the leader was coming with the intention of get revenge.
But turns out that all it can see is nothing more than a wisp? Where is the perpetrator? It stopped for a second and scanned his surroundings with his own Divine Sense, usually, beasts are not very specialized in the maters of soul, in fact the majority is at a lower level than ordinary human cultivators, let alone races like the Spirit Race, because of that their Divine Sense doesn't have too much of a coverage, this Lizard Dragon Leader Divine Sense could at most reach 100 meters.
But even so all it could see is the wisp in front of it, in the end being the weakest race had its own good traits, to be underestimated is a very good one of them, the Lizard Dragon clearly dropped it's guard quite a lot, the same could be said for it's companion, since this wisp had come to deliver itself on the lizard doorsteps, it wouldn't be polite.
The beast's low intelligence played it's part here, if the Lizard Dragon leader had thought a little more, it wouldn't have forgotten that what caught it's attention at first was a... Divine Sense! Only those who have achieved the 7th of Qi Condensation would have a Divine Sense, since Krune was the only one here, it was obvious that he had to be the one who used the Divine Sense earlier, but such train of thought had not even appeared it the leaders mind, in fact, even if it had, the Lizard Dragon probably wouldn't care, at most it would be a little more alert.
The leader and it's companion rushed forward, not paying attention to anything else, when they were just fifty some meters of distance, Krune activated his trap, immediately the cave started to tremble, the lizards got alarmed with the sudden development, but they didn't know was was happening, nor did they have the time to think because above of them, enormous stalactites were falling down, who knows how many years it took for those stalactites to form, their attack power wasn't something that Krune's earth spikes could match at moment.
In an instant, hundreds of stalactites fell and the two lizard dragons immediately tried to dodge, but too bad, if they escaped this calamity so easily Krune's plan would have been worth nothing, he already expected for it, the moment they tried to dodge, earth walls erected around the two, the Lizard Dragon leader was enraged, at any other moment this puny wall would only need one blow of its tail or claws to crumble apart, but it had no time for that now.
"Boom, boom, boom"
It wasn't before a minute later that everything calmed down, even Krune was a little afraid of what he saw, he didn't expect for this plan to create such a tumult, he just prepared a limited space of those stalactites above to fall inside of his earth wall trap, but those stalactites created a chain reaction that made a lot more to come down from the surroundings, even as much as 10 meters ahead Krune could see a few of them, he could have buried himself here.
'Scary, mother nature can't be trifled with after all, even if that Lizard Dragon leader survived this assault it has definitely suffered grievous injuries, it worked much better than I thought though, let's take a look first.'
Krune first got rid of the earth walls around the crumbled down place so that he could see better, to his surprise, although the 7th stage Lizard Dragon died, the 8th stage Lizard Dragon was still on it's last breaths, there was a stalactite impaled on the back, it definitely couldn't move anymore, it looked at the wisp in front of it with hatred, but soon the light on it's eyes dimmed, the mountain range tyrant was finally dead.
Seeing the hatred on the Lizard Dragon's eyes only made Krune sigh.
'It looked at me like that, but how many wisps did it eat until today? The inner parts of the forest have higher concentration of spiritual energy, the number of wisps born here are definitely much higher than those outside, but they usually wouldn't even have time to form their conscience before being eaten and have their energy absorbed by demon beasts like you.'
Wisps are really a pitiful lot, be it humans, beasts or even common animals, the majority would always have parents that would take care of them until they could fend for themselves, but what about wisps? They are born from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, what parent is that to talk about? Krune didn't feel the list bit of guilty, although he didn't like killing, he wasn't idiot to the point that he thought he would achieve greatness by being a pacifist, even if he doesn't make the first move, the other will definitely do so.
Krune took quite some time to open the Lizard Leader's head, if not for this cave stalactites, he probably would have to wait until he at least got to the 8th stage of the Qi Condensation to have a chance at getting rid of the resistance on this spiritual vein, Krune spent most of his life running from both wisp hunters and demon beasts alike, caves were definitely inside the scope of his hiding places, he had witnessed how dangerous those stalactites could be before.
'As expected of a race with a feint dragon bloodline, their demon cores have much more spiritual energy than those ordinary beasts at the same level.'
After collecting everything Krune went further into the cave, it was time to see the spiritual vein by himself, a few minutes later, Krune entered a cave room that was even bigger than the place where he had set up his trap, the cave walls had an azure hue and at the center one could see an small lake of a few tens of meters long, it was a very beautiful scene. On the side of the lake one could see the crude nests that the Lizards had made for them to rest, the biggest one was obviously the Lizard Dragon leader's.
Krune was just about to approach when he suddenly heard some yearning sounds coming from behind the nests, he carefully approached, his air compressed ball place right in front of him, if something launched an attack at him he would be able to quickly escape, ever since Krune used the this strategy against the Four Winged Demon Crow he never entered a battle without one.
At the same time, several wind blades above his head were ready to be shot.
But when he finally saw what it was all his tension deflated like a balloon, turns out that those yearning sounds were the off springs of the Lizard Dragons, the biggest one didn't even reach a third of the size of the 6th stage Lizard Dragons that he first killed outside, but Krune was also quite impressed, of the five little ones the weakest one was already at the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation! And it was obviously that this one was born not long ago.
'To be born directly at the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation, what an envious thing, I wonder how many other races have the same capability, wisps are really a weak bunch.'
The big brother of the group was at the peak of the 4th stage, it looked with hostility at Krune, it put itself in front of the smaller ones and let out several small roars, it was clearly going to put it's life on the line to protect his little brothers and sisters, Krune looked at it and couldn't help find it intriguing, four months ago Krune would only be able to flee at the sight of a peak 4th stage Qi Condensation demon beast, but now he found it's stance quite cute.
'I wonder how good it is to have a family, this lizard still hasn't developed it's intelligence to be able to think straight, but it still knows how to put the safety of the family above it's own interest.'
Thinking about it made him remember Wang Feifei, that day when she made him promise that he would marry her and only her, soon after Krune started to laugh. Even though he will try to keep that promise, he knows very well that this is quite a helpless wish, first of all Feifei was only a Kid, by the time he gets strong enough to go where she is, she will probably have married someone else already, even if she hasn't, she would just think about that day as a Kid's selfishness. But doesn't mater, for Krune, that was still a very good memory that he cherishes very much.
Krune pondered a bit about what to do with those Lizard Dragons, if he let them go there might come a day when they mature and eat other wisps, on the other side, Krune isn't a blood thirsty fellow, he didn't even like killing to start with.
In the end he couldn't bring himself to do anything, now that the adults are all dead their chances of survival is pretty small, and Krune had never killed just for the sake of killing, every single battle he had until today was against opponents of similar level to himself, situations where if he had lost it would have been his death instead, those little ones pose absolutely no threat to him what so ever.
----
After ignoring the little Lizard Draons, Krune went to the small lake to take a look, inside he could see a crystalline white spiritual vein rooted in the earth, the water had the same limpid azure color, the concentration of spirit energy around was the highest he has ever felt, and this is just a very low level spiritual vein, it made Krune wonder how good the high level ones are.
Krune was planing to stay here until he breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment, only after doing that would he be able to attain his human form, but first he had to recover his spiritual energy, the amount used to set up those traps back then used more than half of his reservoir, it's always good to stay at peak state in case the train went out of the rails, those who are prepared live longer. After recovering he will immediately start his cultivation, he needs to create the third meridian, with that his cultivation speed will go a step further again.
----
One week later, Krune had reached half way through the 7th stage of Qi Condensation, he thought it was about time to create the third Spiritual Energy Meridian, when when he was about to start the process, he heard cries coming from the little Lizard Dragons, it was different from before, he wondered what was it about, he got closer to take a look just to see that the small guys seemed a little weak.
'Why is it happening? I don't remember to have done anything for them to turn out like this.'
It didn't take long for Krune to understand.
'Of course! How could I have forgotten? They aren't wisps like me, they need to eat in order to grow up.'
Krune felt like a headache was coming, the lizards looked at him as if they were waiting for him to do something, he was dumbfounded, he wasn't their parents, they should be grateful that he didn't kill them to end all the trouble. Krune decided to ignore them and went back to the lake to prepare for the third meridian creation, the cries didn't stop though, he kept ignoring it at first, but with time it started to really bother him, he couldn't concentrate at all!
'Ahhhhhh! Fine! I will get some food for you, fuc*ing sake, why am I even bothering with it?!'
An hour later Krune came back with a demon deer corpse, he couldn't use that demon bear corpse anymore, it had already rotted quite a bit and he didn't know it it would affect the lizards. The demon deer was an ordinary beast of the 6th stage, usually demon deers walk in groups, although it was a little dangerous to provoke a big group, with Krune's intelligence, it didn't take long for him to get one of them to separate from their group, after that it wasn't anything hard for him to kill a 6th stage ordinary beast anymore as long as it was only one.
The pack noticed that they lost one of their group, but since their where close to the Lizard Dragons nest, they didn't dare to enter the lizards territory to look for it, it will still take a very long time until other beasts notice that the Lizard Dragons are gone, their aura could still be felt around the mountain range.
When the little ones saw the deer corpse their eyes lit up, Krune simply threw it close to them and let nature play it's course, their cries finally stopped, even the big bother of the group looked a little more intimate now, Krune didn't care though, he went back to the lake to restart his third meridian creation, but he couldn't help but think.
'Is it me or they all grew up quite a bit?'
Krune threw this thought to the back of his mind, so what if the grow even more? It has nothing to do with him.
An hour later Krune was ready to start again, the demon cores were ready as well...
The demon cores were ready...
The demon cores...
Demon cores...
Cores...
"WHERE ARE THE DEMON CORES?!"
He was sure that he left the demon cores beside the lake before, he immediately spread his Divine Sense to its max range coverage, everything in a 500 meters radius could be seen, but other than the Lizard Dragons there wasn't anything else.
'Could it be that some beast came in earlier while I was out and took the cores away? Impossible! With the Lizard Dragons aura still in place only a 9th stage of the Qi Condensation beast or above would dare to come, and usually they have their own spiritual veins, they wouldn't look for a fight without reason, furthermore, if they saw that this spiritual vein was empty, they definitely wouldn't have left.'
Suddenly, Krune remembered that the little ones seemed to have grown quite a bit while he was out, not only that but their auras are stronger than before too, when he checked their cultivation he felt like crying but had no tears... Well, wisps have no tears to start with.
All five of them have had a cultivation breakthrough while he was out, their big bother was even at the peak of the 5th stage of the Qi Condensation!
A minute later all of them had already finished eating and sprinted in Krune's direction, he was already fuming and they even dare to attack him? Courting Death!
Just as Krune was about to shoot wind blades and get rid of them, he noticed something weird, different from all those who had attacked him until today, those little ones had no hostility on their faces, let alone hostility, they looked very... Happy?
Once they got close they started jumping around him and crying in his direction as if trying to court his favor, Krune looked at them and his angriness deflated like a balloon, in the end he could only sigh.
"Feifei, my love, please forgive your fiancé, seems like he has got some kids of his own..."
Around 400 meters from where the Lizard Dragon Leader and his last subordinate were, Krune was at a very spacious part of the cave, this cave was enormous to start with, he had just finished his preparations and he couldn't help but to give a self compliment for his ingenuity. 'I might not have enough attack power to breakthrough your defense, but it doesn't mean that mother nature can't.' It didn't take long for him to see his enemy incoming, Lizard Dragons might not be that fast, but as an 8th and 7th stage Lizard Dragons, they were still much faster than any normal beast, in the blink of an eye they were already a 100 meters away from Krune, if Krune could smile he would be doing so now. 'Here they come, the 7th stage lizard isn't important, a direct confrontation with it would be problematic but I'm confident I can still win, the problem is the leader, if I don't break its scales then I can only turn tail and run.' When the Lizard Dragon leader saw Krune, it was taken a little aback, it might still not have developed a high level of intelligence, but it was sure that when it felt that Divine Sense earlier, the one that had come was definitely the one who had killed all of his subordinates, the leader was coming with the intention of get revenge. But turns out that all it can see is nothing more than a wisp? Where is the perpetrator? It stopped for a second and scanned his surroundings with his own Divine Sense, usually, beasts are not very specialized in the maters of soul, in fact the majority is at a lower level than ordinary human cultivators, let alone races like the Spirit Race, because of that their Divine Sense doesn't have too much of a coverage, this Lizard Dragon Leader Divine Sense could at most reach 100 meters. But even so all it could see is the wisp in front of it, in the end being the weakest race had its own good traits, to be underestimated is a very good one of them, the Lizard Dragon clearly dropped it's guard quite a lot, the same could be said for it's companion, since this wisp had come to deliver itself on the lizard doorsteps, it wouldn't be polite. The beast's low intelligence played it's part here, if the Lizard Dragon leader had thought a little more, it wouldn't have forgotten that what caught it's attention at first was a... Divine Sense! Only those who have achieved the 7th of Qi Condensation would have a Divine Sense, since Krune was the only one here, it was obvious that he had to be the one who used the Divine Sense earlier, but such train of thought had not even appeared it the leaders mind, in fact, even if it had, the Lizard Dragon probably wouldn't care, at most it would be a little more alert. The leader and it's companion rushed forward, not paying attention to anything else, when they were just fifty some meters of distance, Krune activated his trap, immediately the cave started to tremble, the lizards got alarmed with the sudden development, but they didn't know was was happening, nor did they have the time to think because above of them, enormous stalactites were falling down, who knows how many years it took for those stalactites to form, their attack power wasn't something that Krune's earth spikes could match at moment. In an instant, hundreds of stalactites fell and the two lizard dragons immediately tried to dodge, but too bad, if they escaped this calamity so easily Krune's plan would have been worth nothing, he already expected for it, the moment they tried to dodge, earth walls erected around the two, the Lizard Dragon leader was enraged, at any other moment this puny wall would only need one blow of its tail or claws to crumble apart, but it had no time for that now. "Boom, boom, boom" It wasn't before a minute later that everything calmed down, even Krune was a little afraid of what he saw, he didn't expect for this plan to create such a tumult, he just prepared a limited space of those stalactites above to fall inside of his earth wall trap, but those stalactites created a chain reaction that made a lot more to come down from the surroundings, even as much as 10 meters ahead Krune could see a few of them, he could have buried himself here. 'Scary, mother nature can't be trifled with after all, even if that Lizard Dragon leader survived this assault it has definitely suffered grievous injuries, it worked much better than I thought though, let's take a look first.' Krune first got rid of the earth walls around the crumbled down place so that he could see better, to his surprise, although the 7th stage Lizard Dragon died, the 8th stage Lizard Dragon was still on it's last breaths, there was a stalactite impaled on the back, it definitely couldn't move anymore, it looked at the wisp in front of it with hatred, but soon the light on it's eyes dimmed, the mountain range tyrant was finally dead. Seeing the hatred on the Lizard Dragon's eyes only made Krune sigh. 'It looked at me like that, but how many wisps did it eat until today? The inner parts of the forest have higher concentration of spiritual energy, the number of wisps born here are definitely much higher than those outside, but they usually wouldn't even have time to form their conscience before being eaten and have their energy absorbed by demon beasts like you.' Wisps are really a pitiful lot, be it humans, beasts or even common animals, the majority would always have parents that would take care of them until they could fend for themselves, but what about wisps? They are born from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, what parent is that to talk about? Krune didn't feel the list bit of guilty, although he didn't like killing, he wasn't idiot to the point that he thought he would achieve greatness by being a pacifist, even if he doesn't make the first move, the other will definitely do so. Krune took quite some time to open the Lizard Leader's head, if not for this cave stalactites, he probably would have to wait until he at least got to the 8th stage of the Qi Condensation to have a chance at getting rid of the resistance on this spiritual vein, Krune spent most of his life running from both wisp hunters and demon beasts alike, caves were definitely inside the scope of his hiding places, he had witnessed how dangerous those stalactites could be before. 'As expected of a race with a feint dragon bloodline, their demon cores have much more spiritual energy than those ordinary beasts at the same level.' After collecting everything Krune went further into the cave, it was time to see the spiritual vein by himself, a few minutes later, Krune entered a cave room that was even bigger than the place where he had set up his trap, the cave walls had an azure hue and at the center one could see an small lake of a few tens of meters long, it was a very beautiful scene. On the side of the lake one could see the crude nests that the Lizards had made for them to rest, the biggest one was obviously the Lizard Dragon leader's. Krune was just about to approach when he suddenly heard some yearning sounds coming from behind the nests, he carefully approached, his air compressed ball place right in front of him, if something launched an attack at him he would be able to quickly escape, ever since Krune used the this strategy against the Four Winged Demon Crow he never entered a battle without one. At the same time, several wind blades above his head were ready to be shot. But when he finally saw what it was all his tension deflated like a balloon, turns out that those yearning sounds were the off springs of the Lizard Dragons, the biggest one didn't even reach a third of the size of the 6th stage Lizard Dragons that he first killed outside, but Krune was also quite impressed, of the five little ones the weakest one was already at the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation! And it was obviously that this one was born not long ago. 'To be born directly at the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation, what an envious thing, I wonder how many other races have the same capability, wisps are really a weak bunch.' The big brother of the group was at the peak of the 4th stage, it looked with hostility at Krune, it put itself in front of the smaller ones and let out several small roars, it was clearly going to put it's life on the line to protect his little brothers and sisters, Krune looked at it and couldn't help find it intriguing, four months ago Krune would only be able to flee at the sight of a peak 4th stage Qi Condensation demon beast, but now he found it's stance quite cute. 'I wonder how good it is to have a family, this lizard still hasn't developed it's intelligence to be able to think straight, but it still knows how to put the safety of the family above it's own interest.' Thinking about it made him remember Wang Feifei, that day when she made him promise that he would marry her and only her, soon after Krune started to laugh. Even though he will try to keep that promise, he knows very well that this is quite a helpless wish, first of all Feifei was only a Kid, by the time he gets strong enough to go where she is, she will probably have married someone else already, even if she hasn't, she would just think about that day as a Kid's selfishness. But doesn't mater, for Krune, that was still a very good memory that he cherishes very much. Krune pondered a bit about what to do with those Lizard Dragons, if he let them go there might come a day when they mature and eat other wisps, on the other side, Krune isn't a blood thirsty fellow, he didn't even like killing to start with. In the end he couldn't bring himself to do anything, now that the adults are all dead their chances of survival is pretty small, and Krune had never killed just for the sake of killing, every single battle he had until today was against opponents of similar level to himself, situations where if he had lost it would have been his death instead, those little ones pose absolutely no threat to him what so ever. ---- After ignoring the little Lizard Draons, Krune went to the small lake to take a look, inside he could see a crystalline white spiritual vein rooted in the earth, the water had the same limpid azure color, the concentration of spirit energy around was the highest he has ever felt, and this is just a very low level spiritual vein, it made Krune wonder how good the high level ones are. Krune was planing to stay here until he breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment, only after doing that would he be able to attain his human form, but first he had to recover his spiritual energy, the amount used to set up those traps back then used more than half of his reservoir, it's always good to stay at peak state in case the train went out of the rails, those who are prepared live longer. After recovering he will immediately start his cultivation, he needs to create the third meridian, with that his cultivation speed will go a step further again. ---- One week later, Krune had reached half way through the 7th stage of Qi Condensation, he thought it was about time to create the third Spiritual Energy Meridian, when when he was about to start the process, he heard cries coming from the little Lizard Dragons, it was different from before, he wondered what was it about, he got closer to take a look just to see that the small guys seemed a little weak. 'Why is it happening? I don't remember to have done anything for them to turn out like this.' It didn't take long for Krune to understand. 'Of course! How could I have forgotten? They aren't wisps like me, they need to eat in order to grow up.' Krune felt like a headache was coming, the lizards looked at him as if they were waiting for him to do something, he was dumbfounded, he wasn't their parents, they should be grateful that he didn't kill them to end all the trouble. Krune decided to ignore them and went back to the lake to prepare for the third meridian creation, the cries didn't stop though, he kept ignoring it at first, but with time it started to really bother him, he couldn't concentrate at all! 'Ahhhhhh! Fine! I will get some food for you, fuc*ing sake, why am I even bothering with it?!' An hour later Krune came back with a demon deer corpse, he couldn't use that demon bear corpse anymore, it had already rotted quite a bit and he didn't know it it would affect the lizards. The demon deer was an ordinary beast of the 6th stage, usually demon deers walk in groups, although it was a little dangerous to provoke a big group, with Krune's intelligence, it didn't take long for him to get one of them to separate from their group, after that it wasn't anything hard for him to kill a 6th stage ordinary beast anymore as long as it was only one. The pack noticed that they lost one of their group, but since their where close to the Lizard Dragons nest, they didn't dare to enter the lizards territory to look for it, it will still take a very long time until other beasts notice that the Lizard Dragons are gone, their aura could still be felt around the mountain range. When the little ones saw the deer corpse their eyes lit up, Krune simply threw it close to them and let nature play it's course, their cries finally stopped, even the big bother of the group looked a little more intimate now, Krune didn't care though, he went back to the lake to restart his third meridian creation, but he couldn't help but think. 'Is it me or they all grew up quite a bit?' Krune threw this thought to the back of his mind, so what if the grow even more? It has nothing to do with him. An hour later Krune was ready to start again, the demon cores were ready as well... The demon cores were ready... The demon cores... Demon cores... Cores... "WHERE ARE THE DEMON CORES?!" He was sure that he left the demon cores beside the lake before, he immediately spread his Divine Sense to its max range coverage, everything in a 500 meters radius could be seen, but other than the Lizard Dragons there wasn't anything else. 'Could it be that some beast came in earlier while I was out and took the cores away? Impossible! With the Lizard Dragons aura still in place only a 9th stage of the Qi Condensation beast or above would dare to come, and usually they have their own spiritual veins, they wouldn't look for a fight without reason, furthermore, if they saw that this spiritual vein was empty, they definitely wouldn't have left.' Suddenly, Krune remembered that the little ones seemed to have grown quite a bit while he was out, not only that but their auras are stronger than before too, when he checked their cultivation he felt like crying but had no tears... Well, wisps have no tears to start with. All five of them have had a cultivation breakthrough while he was out, their big bother was even at the peak of the 5th stage of the Qi Condensation! A minute later all of them had already finished eating and sprinted in Krune's direction, he was already fuming and they even dare to attack him? Courting Death! Just as Krune was about to shoot wind blades and get rid of them, he noticed something weird, different from all those who had attacked him until today, those little ones had no hostility on their faces, let alone hostility, they looked very... Happy? Once they got close they started jumping around him and crying in his direction as if trying to court his favor, Krune looked at them and his angriness deflated like a balloon, in the end he could only sigh. "Feifei, my love, please forgive your fianc, seems like he has got some kids of his own..."
