At someplace three days away from the village, ten people could be seen waiting for something. All of them wore clothes that made them look like bandits, with their cultivation varying between the 3rd and 6th Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Their leader was holding a picture of Krune. He had received an order from the clan to capture this demon beast in human form, and they should also eliminate all witnesses while at it. It was necessary since the Mercenary Guild can't be trifled with.

They received this order three days ago and set out from Kaley City. The leader also received information on how to recognize Krune's aura. He wasn't putting much thought into it, though. The target was only at the 1st Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. He thought it would be a piece of cake to capture him. So what if he beat three 2nd Stage puppets at once? With his 6th Stage cultivation, he could do that as well, even if there were more of them!

​​

"Alright, we've rested for long enough, so let's set out. Considering the time, we should be able to find Krune by tomorrow at most, so we should hurry."

---

Krune was traveling with the group he and Yusa encountered. In the past three days, they fought against two bandit groups. Unfortunately for those bandit groups, they underestimated this team, and it wasn't long before they were wiped out. The three other Foundation Establishment cultivators were amazed by Krune. To think that someone at the 1st Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm could be this strong.

The bandits were truly unlucky. Krune's Divine Sense could be extended to over five kilometers. Although it would consume a lot of Spiritual Energy to keep it active, that didn't mean Krune needed to use it at this level continuously. He simply used it every 15 minutes or so for a second or two. With that, he could find out when bandits were waiting to ambush them long before they did something.

Yusa wasn't much different either. She might not have Krune's strength, but she still had a Two Star Mercenary Badge, so she was quite strong herself.

Krune saw her using a skill called Water Prison, which the enemy couldn't leave no matter what they did. Inside that prison, he could see water blades running around and attacking the bandit from all sides, and it didn't take long before the ones trapped inside were dead. She also had something that looked like water dragons coiling around her body, but they didn't do anything. In the end, she told him that they were for defense as they would be used to block any attacks coming in her direction.

Seeing that, Krune tried to make a water prison himself since it looked like a very good imprisonment skill. Of course, he failed in his first few attempts, which made Yusa laugh. Did Krune even know how long it took for her to learn that? Unfortunately for her, the smile on her face didn't last that long. An hour later, Krune had already formed a water prison. Though, his prison wasn't as good as hers.

Nevertheless, to learn how to cast Water Prison by simply looking and only taking an hour to get a basic understanding of it. That made her think of Krune as a monster! Krune also tried the water dragons since it was easier to learn. After realizing how to create the water prison, his understanding of the Water element improved several times, so the dragons weren't difficult to grasp.

At this point, Yusa didn't even want to look at Krune anymore. Otherwise, her self-confidence would turn to dust.

Of course, there was the saying that practice makes perfect. Within those three days, Krune's water prison and water dragons were already as good as Yusa's. Perhaps even better! In fact, Krune was holding back since he was only practicing. He thought there was no need to go all out on it.

While practicing, Krune could not help but think to himself, 'The Myriad Energies Technique is really marvelous. Now I'm even more certain that this technique has this name because of its ability to improve one's control over the elements. I have been feeling that the higher my cultivation gets, the greater my control becomes.'

It was the night of the third day when the group stopped to rest. They didn't set up a concealing formation since there were too many people. Their concealing runes wouldn't be able to cover them all. There's also no need for it anyway as very few bandit groups would pose a threat to them to start with. Almost everyone was sleeping, with just the three Qi Condensation cultivators awake to watch for them.

Krune was near the group cultivating. He had finally reinforced his Universe Foundation enough to break through.

'Man, this seriously takes a lot of time. Unfortunately, with every stage I go up, the longer it would take to breakthrough. I definitely have to obtain higher-level spirit stones in the future or better cultivation resources.'

He placed those thoughts behind his mind as he decided to break through the next stage. The cultivators were all asleep when all of a sudden, the Spiritual Energy in the surroundings started to move like a torrent in Krune's direction.

Yusa looked at him and muttered with a sigh, "He's breaking through, so he'll now be at the 2nd Stage. Krune is already so strong at the 1st Stage. Now that he's entering the 2nd Stage, I'm sure he'll become scarier. I already wasn't his match before, let alone now. This Universe Foundation of his is really marvelous!"

It didn't take long for an explosion of spiritual energy to come out of Krune's Universe Foundation, which sent dust everywhere. With that, they knew he had succeeded. The leader of the group then came forward to congratulate him and said, "Very good, brother. Now we're going to be even safer during our travel."

His name was Ao Sulian, a sword practitioner. Krune smiled in response and accepted the compliment. This guy was quite an easygoing cultivator. He didn't have that prideful aura around him when he talked with the Qi Condensation members of the group. That gave Krune a good impression of him.

"It was all luck. I've been accumulating spiritual energy for a long time already. So I just took the chance of my foundation being sturdy enough to go through it."

Yusa then came forward to ask him, "How long has it been since you broke through into the Foundation Establishment Realm?"

Krune showed an embarrassed face while scratching the back of his head as he replied, "It has already been almost an entire month. I've been really busy lately with me leaving the Katiu Forest, the Mercenary Exam, and all that, so it's nothing worth mentioning."

Yusa and Ao almost vomited blood after hearing that. Nothing worth mentioning? Nothing worth mentioning your head! If that's slow, what about us? Should we just dig a grave and die then?

"Cough, cough. There's no need for you to hurry so much anyway. In fact, you're progressing very fast already. Remember to cultivate in moderation, or else your foundation might become unstable. A strong foundation can get you much further even if it takes longer."

Krune then nodded after hearing that. He then thought to himself, 'Seems like my cultivation speed is much higher than cultivators and demon beasts at my level. I better not mention it in the future.'

They didn't know that Krune's foundation was already as sturdy as it could be. It was because he was afraid that he hadn't reinforced his Universe Foundation enough that he didn't break through earlier. He was making sure that everything was perfect before advancing to the next stage.

After talking with them, Krune then went back to cultivate again. There were still a few hours left until they set off the next morning. On top of that, his future 'rainbow' core could now absorb more Spiritual Energy again. Krune then took even more spirit stones from his spatial ring and started to send Spiritual Energy into it.

'As expected! Now that I have broken through, the rate of absorption of Spiritual Energy from the rainbow core has increased as well. I'll probably need a lot more spiritual energy.

Before, Krune had used around 200 middle-quality and high-quality Rank One Spirit Stones to fill up his rainbow core. Now, he wanted to find out how many his 2nd Stage rainbow core would consume.

Krune kept at it until the next day, noticing that his spirit stones are disappearing at a very fast pace. If it continued like this, he would only have enough for two more days. His rainbow core looked like a bottomless hole as well, which made him feel quite depressed. Not at his rainbow core or his Universe Foundation, but at his own wealth.

"Alright, everyone. Let's go. We're just three days away from Kaley City. From here onward, the number of bandits should decrease as well."

They set forth, with everyone being in a quite good mood. This travel had been easier thanks to Krune and Yusa joining them later.

---

It was already getting dark again when Krune suddenly felt a Divine Sense wash over him. He then used his own Divine Sense, which was now capable of reaching over six kilometers to check things out. Sure enough, he found a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators moving in their direction at full speed. Of course, from how they moved, it seemed like they were heading towards with vile intentions.

"Ao, prepare everyone for battle! Ten Foundation Establishment cultivators are moving in our direction. They look like bandits!"

Ao Sulian was alarmed, but he realized during their travel that Krune's Divine Sense was just too powerful, so he didn't doubt him.

"Everyone, battle formation! Ten Foundation Establishments are coming, but we have quite a lot of Qi Condensation cultivators. Use three or four of you to form a small formation to deal with one of them. Hurry! They're almost here!"

Krune was already using his Divine Sense to track them. He used it to inform the group from where and when they would appear, and as expected, those guys appeared just like he said.

Those ten Foundation Establishment Realm bandits didn't say anything and attacked the group straight away. Their orders were for them to eliminate all witnesses and bring Krune back.

In an instant, chaos descended in the group. Their opponents were much stronger than them, after all. Ao Sulian and Yusa Shen had the strongest cultivations, both being at the 3rd Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. On the other hand, the weakest member of the other group had the same level of strength.

Yusa was dealing with two at the same time. At first, there was only one fighting her. However, that bandit noticed that he wasn't her match one-on-one and immediately called for reinforcements. Ao Sulian was fighting one at the 4th Stage. As a mercenary himself, he could fight against those at higher levels. His two Foundation Establishment Realm friends were fighting one each as well. Nevertheless, they were clearly at a disadvantage. Their cultivation was lower, not to mention that they were just ordinary cultivators.

The Qi Condensation squads were fighting three enemies using their advantage in numbers. Unfortunately, they also seemed to be at the losing end.

Krune himself was fighting only one. It's just that the guy he was against had a cultivation at the 5th Stage, much stronger than the others. Krune didn't mind, though. With his last breakthrough into the 2nd stage, he could defeat this enemy easily. The problem was that there was one Foundation Establishment cultivator that hadn't joined the fray. He just kept looking at how things were unfolding, and Krune thought that he was there to prevent anyone from escaping.

'I can't show my real strength yet. I have to ensure that I can get rid of at least three or more of the enemies so that I won't need to take care of the others while dealing with that guy. He's clearly stronger than any of the others.'

Krune pondered for a bit over what he could do, and after some time, his eyes lit up! He then sent a Divine Sense message to Yusa and Ao, telling them, 'Get closer to each other! Try to guide your enemies to me, and I will do the same. Just trust me.'

Ao and Yusa were taken aback by the sudden message. Still, their situation was dire, plus they didn't have any other options to start with, so they slowly moved in Krune's direction. The enemy noticed it but didn't care. They didn't think that Krune's group would be able to do anything in this situation.

As soon as the enemy got close enough, Krune then flashed a grin.

'Let's see if the Water Prison I learned from Yusa is really as good as I think.'

He then jumped in the air as he focused all his spiritual energy on the Water element and attacked!

"Water Prison!"

Yusa was shocked! Why was he using Water Prison? This skill took two to three seconds to fully form. With their enemies' cultivation, they would be long gone before the prison could even imprison them.

Then again, what Yusa saw after that made her think about whether she was actually using Water Prison back then. That's because Krune's Water Prison was huge! Not only was it enormous, he only took one second to create that gigantic water sphere! She immediately thought, 'This is not FAIR!'

But before she could even think further, she noticed that she and Ao Sulian were also inside the water prison. Yusa had used Water Prison thousands of times, and she knew that the next part would be to use water blades to crush the enemies. The problem was, she had never been able to control the direction of the water blades! Didn't that mean that both her and Ao would also be crushed by it?

Fortunately, her worries only lasted for another second. That's because there were water blades everywhere, but not a single one hit her or Ao. What kind of monstrous control was that?

One must remember that Krune's main attack skill had always been his Wind Blades and Blazing Wind Blades, so his control with this type of skill had long since surpassed superficiality.

All the enemies were shocked, and even the leader outside immediately rushed forward. They knew that their situation had turned for the worse. If they couldn't break the Water Prison straight away, the four companions inside the prison would die. Not to mention that their group would lose its advantage in numbers regarding Foundation Establishment cultivators. But how could Krune's group outside let them do as they please? They understood that this was the turning point, and they must stop the enemy from interfering at all costs!

In the end, the only one who made it to the water prison was the leader. On top of that, he was also an expert with the Water element. He was confident that with his cultivation, he could break that water prison apart, so he used his strongest skill on the prison straight away!

"Myriad Water Dragons!"

Tens of water dragons formed around him, each the size of a grown man as they all hit the water prison at the same time!

Too bad, though. Who was Krune? He was the first wisp to ever create a universe as a foundation and the proud user of the true Myriad Energies Technique! Not to mention that with the breakthrough from last night, his combat prowess had undergone a massive boost! His water prison couldn't be broken that easily!

Of course, he still had a hard time controlling the prison while making sure that the water blades weren't hitting Ao and Yusa. The enemy leader's expression turned grim. His strongest attack made the water prison tremble as it was on the verge of breaking apart. However, it still resisted. Unfortunately, just when the leader was about to use the same attack again, he suddenly heard four cries from the water prison. He looked inside, and his face became even grimmer.

Ao and Yusa noticed that Krune had the ability to control the water blades inside the water prison, so the enemies inside were having a hard time defending against them. Since that's the case, why should Yusa and Ao stay put doing nothing? They immediately attacked when they noticed that. The water blades were already taking the enemies' entire attention, so they didn't have time to pay attention to Yusa or Ao. The result was a fatal attack directed at them from those two, and the four of them died just like that.

The leader outside didn't even have the time to finish forming his second wave of Myriad Water Dragons before it was already over.

The water prison collapsed right after. Since there were no enemies inside anymore, there was no reason to keep it running. Water spread everywhere, but Krune's Divine Sense didn't leave the enemy's leader for even a second. The battle reached a stalemate with both sides separated. They were waiting to see who would make the first move.