'But before that...'
Krune remembered the main reason why he needed to reach Foundation Establishment. That was because he needed his human form to be able to leave this forest without being hunted.
"Ruik, do you know how the human form thing works?"
Ruik, who was sleeping soundly, suddenly opened his eyes.
"Human form? Oh, that's right! The weaker the races, the earlier they can turn into their human form. Since you are a wisp, then you probably can already transform straight away after Foundation Establishment."
"Although I will only be able to do that after I get to the late stages or maybe even Core Formation, I still know a little about it. It seems like it's something that comes from your desire. As long as you wish for it, it should come as a matter of course, just try it out."
Krune didn't expect to be that easy. Still, since that was the case, he might as well try it out now. Krune willed it, and sure enough, his body started to transform straight away. His energy body suddenly started to get corporeal, and the form of a head and four limbs quickly appeared. It was nothing special. Krune's body seems to be of a very ordinary human. The impressive thing is that he has even blood now that he has a human body.
The other parts soon came forward, and as expected, due to Krune's personality, he turned out to be a man. It was easy to identify due to his little friend in between his legs. The last part that took form was the hair. It was short, which was good for him. If he had got long hair, he would definitely cut it off for it to not get in the way.
Krune was now standing up in front of Ruik, Lakin, and the rest. Krune then opened his eyes, but he couldn't help but feel surprised.
"It's so different! My vision as a wisp allows me to see everything in a 360 degree, but my vision as a human can only see what is in front of my face."
Ruik didn't feel that it was strange.
"That is how almost all races see the world, there are very few races capable of seeing more than what is in from of their eyes. Basically, they would not feel anything strange about that after taking the human form."
Krune agreed with that statement, but it was really inconvenient for him to be able to see so 'little.' Still, he soon got an idea. Krune concentrated for a bit and let his wisp core release some of its energy around it. Sure enough, as soon as it took form, Krune's vision got back to what it was. He even wondered if he should walk with his eyes closed from now on. Still, he quickly discarded this idea, he would only look like a weird that way. It is good enough that he can keep the human form but still retain his full range of vision. He should avoid attracting attention. Unfortunately for him, it will be impossible.
"It worked! As long as I release some of my energy out of my core, I can see everything around me again and still keep the human form."
Ruik was a little surprised, he is a double-headed snake, but still, he can only see what is in front of his eyes. But now that Krune took the human form, he can still see everything in the surroundings.
"That's quite useful, you don't need to keep your Divine Sense active all the time to be able to see around you, and I envy this ability of yours."
"By the way, why are you just standing there? Try to use your body more and see the differences while moving."
Krune agreed with the idea, but as soon as he tried to take one step, he tripped and fell with his face on the ground. It even hurt quite a little.
"Fuc*! How do I move this thing?!"
Ruik and Lakin burst in laugh. That was very comical. Krune tried to get up be he simply didn't know how to control his body, his arms and legs looked like worms, moving everywhere without any logic.
It only made Ruik and Lakin laugh even harder. Krune was feeling gloomy, but this is to be expected. Krune is basically a spiritual energy ball, and now he suddenly got a body with limbs. It would be a miracle if he could use it straight away.
Around ten minutes later, Krune finally got up. He was trembling while trying to keep his balance, though. Ruik and Lakin were still laughing at the side to the point where Krune pondered if he should give them a beating later.
With great effort and after several hours, Krune could finally at least walk normally. Still, he couldn't do any hard movements yet. It was then that he heard Ruik commenting.
"By the way, why is your hair so... colorful?"
Krune was stunned for a bit, colorful? He went beside the spiritual vein lake and took a look at his reflection. Sure enough, his hair was very colorful, just like a... rainbow! The weirdest thing is how the colors moved around in his hair, it even shined a bit.
Krune felt despair! He had decided to walk with his eyes open to not catch much attention, but now it turned out that no one can get more attention than himself.
"Oh, great! I already have the rainbow candy core, now I look like a real clown too. I just need a few Kids to entertain, and I might make a living in the city doing birthday parties."
Ruik and Lakin heard that and burst in laugh again. Unfortunately for them, they didn't laugh for long. That's because Krune finally snapped out! He turned back to his wisp form and gave a through beating on both of them. Ruik was left with a lot of bruises all around his body, and Lakin's energy body became very dim. They didn't dare to laugh anymore, after that. They found out for the first time that Krune is very scary when he is angry.
Krune turned back to his human form and kept practicing. Practice makes perfect. It had only been eight hours since he first took the human form, but he can finally run a little. He is still tripping here and there, but it's already a lot better than not being able even to stand up properly.
There was one thing that no one here took note, though. During all this time, Krune has been... naked! If someone from outside could see it, they would wonder whether Krune is some kind of exhibitionist. A grown-up man with rainbow hair kept running around with his third leg dancing with the winds all the time. Truly a sight to behold... maybe not.
It was not that no one noticed, be it Ruik, Lakin, or Krune, they know very well that he is naked. But two of them are wisps while the former is a demon snake. None of them have ever used clothes to start with. For them, it was merely natural to not have clothes on.
Suddenly, Krune heard a weird sound coming from his belly. Not only that, but he felt like he needs more energy. But even after absorbing spiritual energy to feed his wisp core, he still felt like he was getting weak. He then asked Ruik if he had any idea. After hearing that, Ruik didn't know if he should laugh or cry.
"Are you an idiot? Haven't you fed those Lizard Dragons for a long time? Let me ask you, why do they need to be fed?"
Krune immediately understood, he is... hungry! Such a weird feeling. Wisps only need spiritual energy to survive, he didn't know that his human form would require food. Unfortunately for Krune, there are only some carcasses outside the cave room. When he looked at the Lizard Dragons eating, he felt it was horrible to even look at. Krune then remembered the time that he looked around the villages close to the forest. The people there would burn the meat and eat fruits. Krune tried to do the same. After taking a few slices of the prey, he put on some fire and... turned that meat into crisp in a second!
Of course, it was a failure. Krune had never cooked before, and he doesn't even know the world 'cook' to start with. But then again, practice makes perfect! Several tries later, he finally cooked some meat. The taste wasn't good, though. But it looked much better to the eyes than the raw meat, and tastier too. He also went out and collected some fruits, this time, he finally understood what the word tasty means. The fruits were delicious, he felt like he could get addicted to eating if he doesn't control himself.
"The feeling of eating something is great! Ruik, you should have told me how good it is before!"
Ruik looked at him as someone looking at an idiot. He has always eaten ever since he can remember himself, and it was just normal for him. Sure, eating when you are hungry felt good, but is it necessary to be this hyped out? He just ignored Krune and went back to sleep.
It had been two days since he started to practice with his human body. By now, he wasn't entirely naked anymore. Still, the reason for that has nothing to do with being embarrassed. It's just that every time he moved, his third leg would be jumping around. That really bothered him, so he made something to hold it, that was all.
'I should be able to do battle now even though I'm in my human form. Although it is inconvenient with my original fighting style, it shouldn't be a problem as long as I get used to my wind element movement in this form.'
Krune told Lakin that he would go out to practice for a while and then left. He decided that there is no point in looking for Qi Condensation demon beasts anymore, so he went further into the forest.
He spread his Divine Sense to the max range. Krune was curious to know how far it would reach after his soul had been tempered even further by the tribulation lightning. It turns out that now he can see everything in a 5300 meters radius. This is just inconceivable. Such range could only be done by late stages Foundation Establishment cultivators!
Krune decided to use it every few minutes, he can't keep it activated all the time since it spends a lot of spiritual energy. Sometime later, he finally found a Foundation Establishment demon beast. A Three Horned Buffalo at the 2nd stage.
"This is perfect, let's see if he can feel my Divine Sense."
Krune kept using it, scanning through the buffalo several times. But the buffalo had no reaction, it couldn't feel Krune's Divine Sense at all!
"As I thought, my Divine Sense is several times stronger than any other beast around my level, so they really can't feel it. I guess only a demon beast of the 4th or maybe 5th stage of the Foundation Establishment would be able to feel my Divine Sense. Still, even if they do, they will not be able to tell where I am. The range of my Divine Sense is much bigger than them, this will help me to keep my safety. Now, let's try to challenge this Demon Buffalo."
Although Krune's divine sense is as powerful as late-stage cultivators, his battle prowess is definitely not that great. But with his universe foundation, he is definitely stronger than ordinary 3rd stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. He should have no problem to put a head-on fight against 4th stage ones.
The reason he decided to challenge this demon buffalo is that he is in his human form. Krune needs the practice to get used to it, so, to be safe, he won't try to be cocky.
Krune then got close to the spiritual vein that the buffalo was overseeing. He purposely lessened the power of his Divine Sense so that the buffalo could perceive him too. Sure enough, when the buffalo noticed that Divine Sense, it spread out his own and soon found Krune outside his lair, it went outside to check.
"What do you want? This is my Spiritual Vein, if you want to take it, you won't have a good time."
The buffalo looked at Krune. Although Krune was using his human form, the buffalo could tell that he isn't a human because of his aura. Real humans have a different type of aura around them, and this buffalo obviously know that.
Krune just looked at him and smiled.
"I don't need your spiritual vein, but I want all the spirit stones in it."
The buffalo immediately got angry. A puny 1st stage Foundation Establishment demon beast wants to take his spirit stones away. If he let that guy do as he wishes, he might as well leave this place forever.
"I will only say this once, get the fu*k out right now before I lose my patience."
Krune just kept smiling, though.
"Then I think I have no other choice, I will have to take your spirit stones by force."
The demon buffalo didn't say anything anymore, and it immediately charged at krune at full speed.
Krune was already expecting it, he activated his wind element movement and got out of the way. At the same time, he was about to use ten wind blades. Unfortunately, he tripped again and rolled quite a few times. The buffalo was surprised at first when he saw Krune dodging his charge. His charge isn't something like simply running ahead. With the use of his Divine Sense, he could lock into Krune and make adjustments if Krune tried to move away. But in the end, Krune still dodged.
Still, it never thought that after such a fantastic speed, the guy would trip and roll away. When he saw krune getting up, he could see quite a few bruises on his body.
Krune gave a bitter smile. When he prepared to use his wind blades, he didn't pay attention to where he was walking on anymore. That was to be expected, though. Krune is a wisp, he was supposed to be floating, so there wasn't supposed to be anything that could make him trip. But now he has legs, and he doesn't float either. So it went without saying that he would definitely have some difficulties.
'Good thing I challenged a low-level demon beast. If it was someone at my combat power level, I might have got into trouble.'
The buffalo was only surprised a little, and it immediately charged again. This time, while it was charging, it used an earth element skill to try to bind Krune's legs. Krune wasn't slow, though. Even if he is in his human body now, he still has his 360-degree vision and his Divine Sense. He noticed the changes on the ground and jumped away again. This time, he paid attention to where he was stepping and readied ten wind blades once more. As soon as the buffalo came at him, he shot the blades. Krunes spiritual energy is much stronger now. Even if he doesn't use his blazing wind blades, the normal wind blades are powerful enough already.
The wind blades hit the buffalo, leaving behind quite a few cuts. Still, the buffalo is a strength type beast, and it has high defense levels. It ignored the pain and kept charging at Krune. Now and then, it would use its earth element attacks to try to bind, block, or attack Krune. It is a Foundation Establishment demon beast, after all. It has a lot more spiritual energy than Qi Condensation ones.
But Krune was too fast. The buffalo couldn't understand how a 1st stage Foundation Establishment could be so much faster than him. Not to mention, those wind blades are really annoying, and some times that guy would also use earth element attacks just like him. Now and then, an earth wall would block his way, or some earth spike would shot from his side. Fortunately, the buffalo is an earth element user too, so it was very sensitive to the changes of the earth around. It allowed it to defend or dodge the attacks.
Time passed by, after twenty minutes of the fight, the buffalo was finally out of spiritual energy. Not to mention the hundreds of cuts, big and small, all over its body.
It finally gave up and shouted back through his Divine Sense.
"Alright! Alright! You can take the spirit stones! I can't beat you, it's your win!"
Krune smiled at him again.
"That's very sensitive of you, then I won't be polite."
Krune took all the spirit stones in the spiritual vein and left, he didn't come here to kill anyone to start with. Although he doesn't mind to kill when necessary, the fact is that he doesn't like it. So as long as there isn't a need for that, he won't be taking lives. Things like provocation and benefits are far from being enough to force his hand.
After Krune got far away from the buffalo's lair, he sat down and cultivated to recover. Through the use of his spiritual energy, the injuries on his body started to heal at a fast pace. Krune might have a human body now, but it had taken form using his spiritual energy as base after all. While he was recovering, Krune started to ponder about his battle with the Three Horned Buffalo.
'As expected, the human body is too inconvenient. Although it has a higher level of defense compared with my wisp body, I can't move freely at all. I tripped quite a few times too, and I also have to pay attention to the movements of my own limbs while using my skills. Still, I have no choice. Unless I get in a life or death situation, I can not show my true form as a wisp to anyone outside, so I need to get used to it.'
Time passed by, and Krune had been out for a week already.