14 Understanding the world

Krune started out with questions like how demon beasts in human forms were treated in the country. It turns out that as long as one didn't cause trouble in the cities, one was pretty much free to walk, live and do business however one liked. When a demon beast reached the city, they're obligated to sign a term of non-aggression, apply for an ID, provide the necessary information, and so on.

The reason why the country accepted demon beasts basically had to do with spirit stones. Most of the incoming stones came from danger zones where beasts were the majority. Nevertheless, it would be too hard to place those danger zones under watch. So those places were regarded as 'whatever happens in there is your problem, the government has nothing to do with it' type.

The spirit stones brought by demon beasts in human form help stabilize the country's economy. The weird thing was, Krune had never seen a spirit stone before, so he couldn't help but ask what it looked like.

Both Casfer and Gony felt like they were being played with. They basically asked the same question after hearing that.

"Doesn't this mountain range have a spiritual vein? With the amount of spiritual energy here, it surely has to have one."

Krune nodded in response and waited for them to continue.

"If it does, then it's easy for you to identify them. If you look beside the spiritual vein, it's bound to have several stones rich in spiritual energy. They're definitely different in color. Most likely the same color as the spiritual vein itself."

Krune only had to think for a second to remember that there were indeed quite a few of those stones there. But because of the spiritual energy in the cave, he never paid attention to those stones before.

"How do you know how much they're worth?"

Casfer and Gony then replied back.

"It depends on the concentration of energy in them, and it mostly has something to do with the spiritual vein itself. If I'm not wrong, the spiritual vein in this mountain range is probably a low-quality spiritual vein. So, the spirit stones produced by it are bound to be low-quality spirit stones."

Krune understood this principle. He knew about the different qualities of spiritual veins thanks to what he heard from the other wisps. But since no wisp would ever dare to approach the spiritual veins due to the demon beasts that protected them, he had never known that they produced spirit stones.

With that, Krune had become slightly curious. He knew that wisp hunters captured his race to sell them on the cities, but exactly how much were they worth?

"It depends on the cultivation level of the wisps. As you probably know, wisps are used as cultivation resources mainly because of their easy to absorb and clean energy. Although the energy provided by the wisps isn't as pure as the energy from spirit stones, the energy of wisps can be absorbed several times faster. Not to mention, the higher the cultivation of the wisp, the higher and cleaner the spiritual energy is."

"I will make a comparison with spirit stones."

"A wisp with cultivation at the 1st Stage of Qi Condensation has enough spiritual energy equivalent to 500 low-quality Rank One Spirit Stones. Please remember that wisps' energy can be absorbed much faster than spirit stones."

"2nd Stage, 750 middle-quality Rank One Spirit Stones. The same rule applies. The time necessary to absorb their energy is less than one-tenth."

"3rd Stage, 1000 high-quality Rank One Spirit Stones."

"For the wisps at the 4th to 6th Stage of Qi Condensation, the amount of spiritual energy and its purity also improves. All of them are considered at the same level as Rank Two Spirit Stones, which are a grade higher than the lowest possible grade."

"So, in this case, 4th Stage wisps have the same spiritual energy as 500 low-quality Rank Two Spirit Stones."

"5th Stage wisps have the same energy as 750 middle-quality Spirit Stones."

"And finally, 6th Stage wisps have the same energy as 1000 high-quality Rank Two spirit stones."

"Of course, wisps of this level are rarely seen. Wisps have a short lifespan. Any average cultivator would take at least 15 to 20 years to reach the 6th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. So it goes without saying that wisps who can live for only 10 years, in general, are most likely to be dead already before they reach that cultivation level."

"Now, for the 7th Stage wisps and above. Those are basically legends! Unless someone's willing to pay the price to help a wisp break through the 7th Stage barrier, it's almost impossible for you to find such a rare wisp in the wild. Plus, no one's willing to pay the price since the amount necessary for that is way higher than the returns."

Krune looked back at them.

"So, what quality of spirit stones am I worth? Would it be high-quality Rank Three stones?"

They looked back at Krune with odd faces as they replied.

"We don't know. As I said, 7th Stage wisps are as rare as phoenix feathers. I would say that a 7th Stage wisp definitely has energy no less than 500 low-quality Rank Three Spirit Stones. But we all know that once the 7th Stage is achieved, Divine Sense follows. Hence, chances are that they might already have surpassed the middle-quality or maybe even high-quality Rank Three Spirit Stones."

Krune pondered over it for a bit. His Myriad Energies Technique allowed him to cultivate at breakneck speeds. He also knew that the quality of the converted spiritual energy provided by his energy meridians was definitely at the top. Chances are that his energy might be equivalent to Rank Four Spirit Stones or perhaps even Rank Five. Then again, he wasn't sure if that was true, nor did he wish to find out if it was true.

"No wonder there's so many wisp hunters. If I'm not wrong, even the price of a 1st Stage Qi Condensation wisp is already enticing enough."

It was then that Krune thought about another thing.

"You guys said that a wisp has a certain amount of energy depending on their cultivation. For example, a 1st Stage Qi Condensation wisp has more or less the same amount of spiritual energy as 500 low-quality Rank One Spirit Stones. But their spiritual energy is around 10 times easier to absorb. If I'm not wrong, this 1st Stage wisp is bound to be worth much more than just 500 Spirit Stones of the same level, right? After all, that rate of absorption would definitely help a lot more at times like breaking through a bottleneck."

Casfer and Gony couldn't help but admire this wisp's intelligence.

"Exactly, wisps nowadays are getting harder and harder to find, so they're usually worth three to four times more than their amount of spiritual energy in spirit stones."

Krune was quite satisfied with their answer. With that, he then went into the next topic.

He asked them how the country checked on the demon beasts. After all, who could guarantee that the demon beasts would follow the laws of the country? It turns out that other than the things mentioned before, there were special blood contracts that were bound to the soul. Once a demon beast signed the contract, it would burn and place a restriction on its soul. If a demon beast went overboard, the contract would activate and restrict the beast until the authorities come and check out what was happening.

Of course, the country didn't want people to use the contracts to hunt down demon beasts, so it was set that a demon beast couldn't break the law. But if someone tried to harm it, it had the authority to defend itself as long as the opponent didn't die. That was to guarantee the demon beasts' safety and the continuous flow of spirit stones in the market.

Of course, it's not like every demon beast can enter. No matter what, a demon beast would only be treated as a citizen if it has at the very least achieved a human form. Any demon beast that hasn't obtained a human form wouldn't be able to sign the agreement or the blood contract or do any of the other procedures. This didn't only apply to the country but to the entire world as well. The reason for that was because any beast without a human form hasn't developed its mind to the point that it could entirely control its instincts. Because of that, any beast, wisps included, that hasn't achieved a human form wasn't protected in any way.

That's also why you could find things like demon beast meat in restaurants, demon cores for sale, and of course, wisps for absorption or for use in alchemy. Simply put, if one doesn't look like a human, one wasn't treated like a human at all.

Also, if one left the city and wasn't careful enough to the point one was killed outside, so long as there was no evidence left behind, the country wouldn't do anything.

Krune looked at them and asked.

"Will they ask what type of demon beast you are or ask you to turn back into your real form before forming the contract?"

That was something very important to Krune. If people found out that a Foundation Establishment Realm wisp had appeared, he might even have Divine Soul Realm cultivators after him. Krune thought that such a wisp would be so tempting that the entire world would ignore the laws out of greed.

Casfer and Gony soon gave out the same answer.

"They won't. It's for the same reason that you're probably thinking. If, for example, a demon beast has an amazing bloodline, alchemists might disregard anything to get their hands on such high-quality material. Because of that, their race or true forms are kept out of the registers."

"Of course, if they reveal their true forms or race by mistake, then they could only blame themselves for that."

Krune sighed in relief as he thought to himself.

'It seems like I'll be able to go to the city after all.'

After that, Krune brought both of them to the spiritual vein separately to check the quality of the spirit stones at the lake.

"As I thought, this is just a low-level spiritual vein. The spiritual stones close to the center of the lake are at middle-quality Rank One. Those at the borders are low-quality Rank One stones."

Both Casfer and Gony didn't feel anything at the sight of the spirit stones. The reason was simple. There were just too few of them. The total amount of spirit stones in the area, combining all the low and middle-quality stones together, wasn't even 200. For a One-Star Alchemist and a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator, it wasn't anything much.

Krune finally allowed them to be together after that. There was no need to ask them questions separately anymore.

"Alright, I might as well tell you this. I don't like killing, never liked it before, and will probably never like it in the future. But if I let you guys go, and you spread the word that a 9th Stage Qi Condensation wisp has appeared, calamity would befall me. So, how should we deal with this issue?"

Casfer and Gony understood that this was the moment that would decide whether they lived or died. Fortunately, the wisp was willing to let them go as long as they could guarantee Krune's secret. With that, Gony was the first one to step forward since he already had an idea in mind.

Gony touched his ring, and soon, three red papers appeared on his hand. Krune wasn't surprised by this. He knew about spatial rings. In fact, spatial rings were widespread goods between cultivators. It's just that he didn't have one. Also, he already had an idea of what those red papers were.

Gony looked at Krune and said.

"As I had commented before, these papers are blood contracts. As you can already imagine, we don't use them just to prevent demon beasts from creating problems in the cities. We also use them as a way to guarantee the safety of deals between cultivators. The principle is the same after the terms are written down. Everyone just needs to sign it after. It will put a bind on the soul preventing the people involved from breaking the agreement."

Krune was very satisfied with this arrangement. He wasn't afraid that those contracts were fake. First of all, there would be no need for the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator to walk around with meaningless papers. On top of that, Casfer took out the same type of papers. Second, it was way too easy for Krune to test them out. He just needed to capture a low-level beast and force it to sign the contract, then he would make the beast break the contract against its will to see the results.

It was then that Krune had an idea. He would have to go to the city after breaking through the Foundation Establishment realm, so he might as well use Casfer and Gony as helpers.

Under the eyes of Casfer and Gony, Krune stated in the contract that they were forbidden to ever talk or use any other type of communication to tell what had happened here. Nor were they to ever try anything against him in the future, be it through their own hands or through the hands of another. Otherwise, the punishment stated in the contract was death. He then gave it for the two of them to sign. The blood contracts immediately burnt, and a seal appeared on their foreheads for a few seconds, quickly disappearing after.

He then took two more blood contracts and stated that Gony and Casfer should give him all the help possible in the case they met again in the future. As long as it didn't go against their own well-being, of course. Casfer and Gony looked at each other and then nodded. This wasn't a slave statement, so it should be fine.

"Very well. In the future, I will pay a visit to the city after I break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm and obtain my human form. I will see you there when the time comes."

Casfer and Gony were taken aback. Foundation Establishment Realm wisp? With that, Casfer looked at Krune and asked.

"If it isn't rude, may I ask how old are you?"

Krune looked back at them and didn't think much about it. With the blood contract, they would never be able to betray him anyway.

"I'm three years old."

The souls of the two almost went out of their bodies as they simultaneously thought.

A three-year-old 9th Stage Qi Condensation Realm wisp!

How is that even possible?!

Gony and Casfer were about to leave when Krune remembered one thing.

"Oh, right! From which city are you guys from?"

Casfer then answered.

"There's only one city around that has an Alchemist Guild, and that is the city of Kaley."

Krune took a mental note of that city's name. After some time, he then said to them.

"Also, leave me one of your spatial rings. I don't have any."

This time, it was Casfer who stepped forward. As an alchemist, he had to carry a lot of materials around, so he had quite a few spare spatial rings with him.

After sending the two of them out, Krune went back to the spiritual vein lake.

"Well, Kaley City it is, then."