11 At least you know how to be grateful

A week later, after making the oldest Lizard Dragon cry, Krune had finally broken through to the 8th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. He could now choose between slowly stabilizing his cultivation in the spiritual vein lake or head out and battle against similarly leveled opponents. Of course, if he fought against weaker opponents like what he did these past few weeks, nothing would change at all, and he might as well stay in the spiritual vein.

'First, I need to improve my own abilities. Wind blades, earth walls, and earth spikes have reached a limit of what they can do. If I come across a demon beast with high defense like the Lizard Dragon leader, it'll be quite hard to break through their scales or hides. I think I already have enough control over spiritual energy to try that.'

The thing Krune was thinking about was merging skills together. By combining two skills into one, he could achieve higher attack power. He had a few ideas in mind as Krune had seen way too many types of low-level skills from wisp hunters in his past three years of fleeing. Simply put, he saw every type of common element.

There was one time when he bumped against a group of wisp hunters. Fortunately, they couldn't waste their time with Krune at that time. That was because that group was fighting a 7th Stage Qi Condensation Fanged Bull. It was during that battle that he saw two hunters cast a Wind Blade together with a Fireball.

The result was the amazing Blazing Wind Blade, which was much more powerful than any of the two skills alone. At that time, it was obvious that neither of the two hunters could have used that merged skill alone. To cast two skills simultaneously and make sure they merged was something one couldn't do without enough control over spiritual energy. That group of hunters was definitely an old one that had gone through a lot together.

For now, he was going to try the Blazing Wind Blade. He had already used two different skills at the same time before, like the earth spikes and wind blades. But so far, they were doing their own things. Earth spikes were earth spikes, while wind blades were wind blades. They didn't have anything to do with each other at all. Each one had their own place and objective when he used them.

First, he needed to understand how to cast a fireball, or better yet, he first needed to figure out how to create fire. One must remember that Krune had learned how to use his skills alone. He had no manuals or teachers to speak of.

Since he didn't know how to do that, he used his own ideas. By elevating the temperature in a small area to a ridiculous degree while using spiritual energy as fuel, he was finally able to understand the principle behind it. Of course, it took him two entire days to figure out how to convert spiritual energy into something that could be used as fuel for the fireball. It was the fire element of spiritual energy.

After learning how to create a fireball, he started to practice with it. There would be no point in trying to merge his wind blades with the fireball if he barely knew how to control it to start with. He went outside to hunt a few 7th and 8th Stage Qi Condensation beasts and made sure to try and use the skill in battle. Krune kept at it for an entire week. Every time he killed a demon beast, he would return to the spiritual vein and ponder over his experiences, making sure to mull over his mistakes. As for the demon corpses and demon cores, he simply threw them at the Lizard Dragons. He had already become accustomed to feeding them anyway.

After a week's worth of practice, he had finally obtained an initial level of control over the fire element, so it was time to apply it to his other skills.

'I have two ideas in mind. The first one is the Blazing Wind Blade. The attack power this thing packs is bound to be several times higher than any normal wind blade. As for the second idea...'

Krune's mind lit up after that. He might have just found a way to immobilize strength or defense-type beasts completely. But he still needed to try that idea out, though.

'Let's start with the Blazing Wind Blades first.'

And just like that, Krune started practicing how to merge one fireball with the compressed air that the wind blades were made out of. Sure enough, the difficulty in merging two skills together turned out to be insanely high. More often than not, Krune would lose control over the energy of the fire element as it would eat away the wind element. The compressed air forming the wind blade would then be released all around, throwing fire everywhere. After a few attempts, Krune gave up practicing beside the spirit vein. He was turning the cave room into a mess at this point. He even felt that it might affect his spiritual vein at this rate.

After two more weeks of continuous attempts filled with failures, he finally found the trick behind the merge.

It turns out that to put both the fire and wind elements together was a fool's idea to start with. At least, Krune definitely didn't have the ability to do so at the moment. The correct path was to first convert the spiritual energy into the fire element before using the wind element to compress the air around the fire element. After taking the shape of the wind blade, he would then release it, and at the same time, ignite the elemental fire energy. They would then merge together the moment it was released, creating a terrifying blade of flame and wind that would cut everything in its path. It was akin to a hot knife cutting through butter, and even Krune was a little scared of the results.

'Holy shit! Thank the heavens I was practicing it from a distance. If I missed the release direction and it hit me, I would instantly find out if a wisp can be burnt to a crisp or not. Not only has the power increased by several folds, but even the speed of the blade has also increased, probably at least three times faster than before.'

'I guess it's because the high temperate burns the air around, eliminating the resistance while adding to the power of the blade itself. At my level, I refuse to believe I couldn't have cut through the Lizard Dragon leader back then.'

In actuality, Krune didn't know it, but the majority of the attack power of the blazing wind blade was all due to his Spiritual Energy Meridians. There was no way someone else at his level would be able to control those two types of elements at the same time. Perhaps, only members of big clans or sects would have the necessary knowledge to pass down such abilities. Krune was still underestimating the usefulness of his Myriad Energies Technique. Perhaps, its name came out to be because of its unbelievable support in controlling the elements.

---

Krune was in the middle of his practice outside the Lizard Dragon cave when he noticed that the oldest Lizard Dragon came out of nowhere with a demon deer in its mouth. Soon, he could see that its younger siblings were behind it with some lower-level demon deers as well.

Krune was slightly surprised to see that. He had never taken those guys out for hunting before, but it turns out that they could already take care of themselves. Krune hadn't paid any attention to the lizards these past few weeks. He simply brought back the demon corpses to feed them and threw the demon cores at them for consumption.

It turns out that without him knowing, their big brother was already at the peak of the 6th Stage. While the youngest Lizard Dragon was in the middle of the 5th Stage. As one could easily remember, Lizard Dragons have a faint dragon bloodline. Even though it's incredibly faint, just this much was enough for them to be able to battle ordinary demon beasts of a higher level than themselves. And the proof was right in front of Krune since he could feel that the demon deer in the mouth of the oldest Lizard Dragon was at the beginning of the 7th stage. The big guy had also sustained a few injuries on its body, the same could be said for its younger siblings, but those were nothing serious.

Krune was happy for them. It seemed like they already had the power to fend for themselves. When he left this place, he wouldn't need to worry about them not being able to eat or defend against enemies.

But Krune didn't expect to see what happened next. All of them bit the heads of their catch and took away the demon cores. After that, they went in front of Krune and used their maws to offer Krune their demon cores. Krune was really astonished to see that. Those gluttons were actually offering their demon cores to him.

"For me?"

The big brother nodded its head as its siblings followed suit. Krune couldn't help but feel a little emotional from this sight.

"Haha! At least you guys know how to be grateful, after all. Very well, I'll accept your gifts."

Krune grabbed the cores and put them away. Although he had no need for those cores anymore, it was his first time receiving a gift out of gratitude. It felt really good. He would make sure to use those cores when he cultivated next time instead of using the spiritual vein.

Krune then changed the form of the spiritual energy in his body into those of hands before patting the head of the five Lizard Dragons.

The Lizard Dragons seemed very satisfied with this.

"You guys go back to the spiritual vein and rest. You need to heal your injuries. The spiritual vein should help with that."

Their big brother then brought them away into the cave, and soon, everything went back to normal around Krune.

'To think that they would gift me with their own demon cores. This ought to be the first time a demon beast presented a wisp with demon cores. Hahaha!'

---

Just like that, day after day passed. Krune didn't have to go out hunting to feed the Lizard Dragons anymore, either. With that, he basically spent his time on merging skills. He had now become quite skilled at it. The formation of the blazing wind blade only took a second at this time, plus he didn't fail in merging them anymore.

What Krune didn't expect was that his cultivation had already stabilized at the 8th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. This came as a surprise for him since he could now attack the 9th Stage. With the help of the spiritual vein, it shouldn't take him more than a month to reach the peak of the 8th Stage.

Krune then went back to the cave. Just when he was about to enter the cave room where the spiritual vein was located, he noticed the Lizard Dragon apprehensively staring in the direction of the spiritual vein lake. Krune was quite confused as to what was happening. There was no way someone would have entered the cave without him noticing. He spent a few weeks in front of the cave entrance practicing his new skills after all. Since it couldn't be an intruder, then it was definitely something else.

When Krune entered the cave room, the Lizard Dragons noticed him and quickly rushed to his side. Above the lake, one could see the spiritual energy rotating at high speeds. It was quite a sight to behold.

"How beautiful! What could cause such a thing to happen?"

The waves of spiritual energy had all colors of the rainbow. They went up and down like they were dancing. It felt like the descent of a deity, and it was truly amazing. After an hour, the dancing energies started to coalesce into a single point in the middle. That mass of spiritual energy the size of a speck of sand then began to gradually enlarge. Krune could only think of one thing at this point.

'Don't tell me it'll explode, right? If this amount of energy explodes, it'll definitely ruin the spiritual vein in the lake!'

Fortunately for Krune, that wasn't going to happen. Time slowly passed, and more energy was gathered at the center. At some point, that mass of energy started to take form, looking just like a sphere. At first, it was as big as the head of a bull, but slowly, it started to shrink.

Another hour passed, and the sphere of energy took on the size of an ordinary energy core. At this point, Krune started to feel that this type of spiritual energy was somewhat familiar. Though, he couldn't remember exactly where he had felt it before.

After some time, Krune's mind lit up!

"Wait a minute! Could it be?!"

Eventually, spiritual energy started to revolve around that small energy core. Slowly but surely, it started floating over the lake. The progress was almost complete, and by now, Krune was virtually sure.

"Is that a wisp?"

Sure enough, everything soon calmed down as the spiritual form of a wisp took place. The just-born little guy was now floating there.

"So, that's how I was born, right?"

Krune might have found quite a few wisps during his life. But this was the very first time he saw how a wisp was born.

'No wonder wisps usually can't live past a day. With all the commotion their birth generates and the time needed, any demon beasts or wisp hunter in the surroundings would definitely notice what's going on. By the time the wisp takes its form, the beasts and hunters wouldn't let it go. A just-born wisp has no memory to speak of, so they simply don't know how big the danger is when they first see the world around them.'

The little guy looked around as everything was new to him. He couldn't understand what's going on. The only thing in his mind was that somehow, he appeared here, and that was all.

Krune looked at him and just sighed while approaching the other wisp.

"You can't understand me just yet, but I know way too well how you're feeling at the moment. Don't worry, though. I will take care of you for a while until you can at least understand what danger means."

Krune's birthplace was just like most of the still-alive wisps. It was in a secluded place where any beast rarely passed by. That was all he could remember. Krune couldn't even say where that place is anymore since he left after a few days. Nevertheless, those few days were enough for him to understand if he was in danger or not so that he could flee if necessary.

Inside Katiu Forest, what determined if a wisp would live past a day or not was...luck!

That was all.

The little guy still didn't know, but he could be said to be one of the luckiest wisps of all time.