Time passed, and two months went by. Everyone spent their time improving their skills. During this time, Ao and Yusa took two missions in the name of the team. As Krune and Shinja were a lot busier, they went alone. With their strength, they could complete missions at their level with ease and lift some of the team's overall burden.
Krune kept practicing the Short-Distance Teleport Formation as well as going to the Alchemist Guild to concoct some pills to make some money. Supervisor Go Gao buzzed on his ears when he discovered that Krune decided to take part in the mercenary selection. However, Krune didn't mind; he simply said that if the alchemist really has a problem with it, he will leave the guild. That was enough to shut his mouth. Worse than having Krune taking dangers, it would be losing his talent completely. He still believes that Krune should focus on alchemy only, though.
Krune had also advanced to the 6th stage of Foundation Establishment. Because of the over half a year without cultivating at all, his planet in his foundation stabilized. Even after this breakthrough, he didn't feel he needed to wait again. Krune is expecting to be on the 7th or maybe even the 8th stage by the time the mercenary selection starts.
On Ao Sulian's side, he had finally completed his last pseudo meridian and is already trying to build his first Spiritual Energy Meridian. According to what Krune could see, Ao would probably need one or at most two more weeks to get it done. His cultivation is already in the middle of the 7th stage. Ao could have pushed his cultivation further, but just like Krune, his breakthroughs got too fast. He had to stop there for a while to stabilize his foundation as well. It gave him time to practice his swords skills and to pay more attention to the Myriad Energies Technique.
As for Yusa, she had also entered the 7th stage, just like Ao. She started to make spirit stones with the Runestones Formations to open more Spiritual Energy Meridians. She needs more spirit stones, something she doesn't have much at the moment. She is trying to get as much as possible before returning to the Rainbow Sect Secret Realm. By putting together the reward of the soul endurance test together with what she earns with the runestones, she might be able to open two meridians at once!
Shinja hasn't changed much cultivation related. It is necessary quite some time to adapt to the Core Formation Realm, so she is still at the first stage and will probably stay there a little longer. Now that she entered this realm, the natural control over the elements that comes when one breaks through this realm is now available for her. That, coupled with the soul technique, and Krune's help, she definitely wouldn't have problems fighting those at the 3rd stage, maybe even 4th.
A few weeks later, Krune was inside his house, and one could see another teleport formation taking form. Krune had become very proficient in making this formation and even added the spirit gathering formation on top of it to help save spirit stones. He built two formations on two sides of his house and was about to test their functions.
'Let's see, last time it was almost perfect. It just went wrong because of the wrong energy flow in the outer right corner. This time it should work without a problem.'
Krune then put a box with some spirit stones inside on the formation. The spirit stones inside the box were not for the sake of charging the formation, but for testing whether they can appear on the other side intact. He then put other spirit stones to charge the formation outside. Because the distance was extremely small, there was no need for spirit stones of high level. So he simply used some Rank-One stones, and that was enough. The teleport formation activated, and the formation shined for a second. After that, the box disappeared; the next instant, the box appeared on the other side of the house. Krune went there to check. At first, the box looked okay, but what really mattered was the spirit stones inside.
'Wisps without a human form are basically a large amount of spiritual energy. If the spirit stones teleported correctly without any damage, this formation should be able to do the same with wisps.'
Krune opened the box and let out a sigh of relief. The spirit stones this time were teleported over without any cracks or loss of spiritual energy. That's exactly the effect he wanted to see. He then tried a few more times to guarantee his set up wasn't wrong.
'Great! This should suffice. Thinking it would take me this long to learn how to set up a teleport formation, no wonder the price to set one is out of the charts. This thing is difficult as hell.'
It's good no one heard what Krune had said. Using just two months to set up a teleport formation is already heaven-defying progress. Normal Four Stars Formations Master would take no less than a year to get to the point where he is, which also explains why it is too expensive to employ one to do the service.
He then sent a message to everyone saying that he'd finished his preparations for teleport formation. After talking with everyone a little, they decided Shinja would go to Harta City to rent the teleportation formation first. After she was done, Krune would go to the Rainbow Sect Entrance Gate and set up the formation there.
Krune agreed with that and left the same day to the Katiu Forest. Nothing is stopping him from setting up a formation there already. As for Ao, he went to the Solie Clan to talk with Zu Solie. It would be a secret operation of their group, so they had to make sure everything was going to work okay. Yusa then prepared a few concealing runestones to be used in both city's teleport formations. This way, it would guarantee their safety during the time the teleportation is being used.
With nothing holding him back, Krune took very little time to arrive back where the wisps and his disciple are staying. As soon as he arrived, he entered the spiritual vein lake cave room and set up the formation using the spiritual vein as the main source of energy. This spiritual vein might only generate low-level spirit stones. However, the vein itself still has a lot of spiritual energy inside. It was a very good source of energy, even at the low level. Lakin saw that and couldn't help but ask.
"Master, won't the spiritual vein get damaged if we use its source energy?"
Krune nodded.
"Probably, but it's okay since we are leaving. And, with time, it will recover itself, so there is no need to worry."
Lakin sighed. He didn't want to see anything happening with the spiritual vein after staying there for so long. But then again, it was for the safety of the wisps. Since his master said that it would recover eventually, he decided not to say anything else. He also wanted to talk about another problem but decided to wait for his master to finish the formation first. It seemed a very complicated process, after all.
Krune looked around while he was setting up the formation and couldn't help but ask:
"Is it me or the number of wisps increased?"
Lakin didn't deny that.
"It did. Since we were going away with them, I extended the range of my search and ended up finding a few more. This is just a drop of water in the ocean, but I still wanted to bring as many wisps as possible."
Krune understood that, but there was one thing puzzling him.
"But how exactly did you find so many? Even during the time I went everywhere as wisps, I rarely got to see other wisps; usually, we keep hiding after all."
Lakin's face turned serious, but he still answered.
"Master, do you remember you said you didn't mind the kind of foundation I used?"
Krune nodded. As long as Lakin was successful in building his foundation, Krune would be happy. So he had never asked what type of foundation he used in the end.
"Well, master said that you looked at how I was born to think over about the Universe Foundation. But I haven't had the luck of seeing it even once until now. But since you could use the moment a wisp was born as a base for a foundation, why couldn't I use myself, a wisp, as foundation too?"
Krune was taken aback. Use the form of a wisp as foundation? He had never thought about that.
"So, your foundation basically has the form of a wisp?"
Lakin nodded.
"But something weird happened after I succeed in building this foundation. I started to get sensitive to wisps energy, even without using Divine Sense. As long as they aren't too far away from me, I can feel their presence. That's how I appeared in the cave entrance when the master first came back. I felt that a wisp was approaching our spiritual vein cave at that time."
Krune was very surprised by that. A foundation using a wisp's form this kind of foundation might not be as sturdy as a universe foundation. But it is probably, no, it definitely is much rarer.
"I see, no wonder…"
"Oh right, after you have completed your wisp foundation, did you get a heavenly tribulation?"
Lakin shook his head.
"I was also afraid that it might summon a heavenly tribulation. So I practiced the formation of Spiritual Energy Meridians for a time before trying it out. In case a tribulation came down, I could use the same method as master did to save me. But in the end, it never appeared."
Krune nodded and didn't say anything else. He had to focus on the formation. A few hours later, Krune finished setting up the Short Distance Teleport Formation.
"Alright! With this, we are set up on this side. I need to go to the Raskie Danger Zone now. The entrance to the Rainbow Sect is there. After finishing setting everything up, I will come back for us to move out."
Krune was about to leave when Lakin brought another issue up.
"What is it?"
Lakin took a deep breath and told what was bothering him.
"A few days ago, a group of the Foundation Establishment cultivators passed by. I couldn't feel any Divine Sense coming into our lair, though. But in the middle of their group, it seemed like there was a guy who definitely had a high level of cultivation. So, whether he checked things or not, I can't tell. The difference in cultivation level was too big. They stayed close but didn't do anything. After a few hours, they left."
It was then that Krune remembered one thing. On his way here, he did indeed find a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators moved at high speeds in the opposite direction. They were obviously going back to Kaley City. At that time, he didn't pay attention since groups of cultivators walking together in the Katiu Forest wasn't anything strange.
"They probably took a look at the demon beasts defending the entrance. They concluded that it would cause too many casualties if they attacked with the force they had that moment. So they went back to get reinforcements, this complicates things."
Staying here to defend the lair would be a foolish action. If they failed in the attack, they would flee and call even more people. The number of wisps staying in the spiritual vein lake can make even some Core Formation Experts take action. It means that Krune has to move back and set up the Raskie Danger Zone Short Distance Teleport Formation straight away. Thus, he can't stay to start with.
'What I'm lacking is time. I could send them over to the Solie Clan first and keep them there until I finish the Raskie Danger Zone teleport formation. But that would be even more dangerous. If anything goes wrong, and people find out that such an enormous number of wisps with high-level cultivations are staying in the Solie Clan, maybe even the law won't stop their greed. That moment, we are going to be helpless.'
Krune pondered a bit and looked at the Direction of the Teleport Formation he built.
'I was planning to have someone checking the other side first to see whether whatever I sent would arrive safely. But I guess I can only try it straight away.'
Krune got close to the teleport formation and double-checked it again. There is no doubt it was exactly the same as the one he made back at his home. He put some spirit stones to help with the spiritual energy of the spiritual vein and stepped on it. He took a deep breath and set up the coordinates of the Solie Clan Teleport Formation.
"Activate!"