Chapter 116: Not Enough Energy.
Mile was faster than Krune, so they took less than a day to arrive at the entrance of the gate. But because everyone was looking for the super wisp, they were stopped by Divine Soul Realm demon beasts twice. At first, they demanded them to turn back into their original forms. Too bad, though. Mile took out a token of the Mercenary Guild and told them who Krune was.
Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts have ways to communicate with others outside the danger zone. So after they heard who Krune was, they immediately gave up the idea of finding trouble with him. After all, the chances of any of those two to be the supposed super wisp was just way too small.
After arriving at the right altitude, their vision warped around. A second later, Krune and Mile could see the elemental gate open. Shinja and Yusa were there, keeping the concealing formations activated. When they saw krune and Mile together, they were taken aback.
"Mile!"
Mile just laughed and said.
"It's been some time."
Shinja and Yusa looked puzzled at Krune.
"I will explain another time, I'm going inside now. Yusa, you come with me to help with the formations set up."
Shinja stayed outside to keep guard, and the rest entered the gate. They then teleported to the inner city, and Krune called Hasik over. Mile looked at that and was impressed with the place, not to mention the sheer amount of wisps. She couldn't help but ask what was happening. Krune then called Lakin over and told him to explain everything about the Rainbow Sect to her.
Krune was just about to ask Hasik what he should take with them when suddenly, an explosion happened in the distance. Immediately after that, the entire dimension started to rumble!
"What is happening here?!"
Hasik concentrated in the Dimension Formation and soon found out the answer.
"They broke the outer shell of the dimension. It was a lot faster than I thought, though. I guess there is at least one or two Soul Forming Realm cultivators or demon beasts with them."
Krune was alarmed after hearing that.
"Does it mean that the dimension will collapse soon?"
Hasik shook his head.
"It seems like those Soul Forging Realm guys are using their power to keep the dimension stable. They are putting a lot of effort into this quick invasion too. The dimension will not collapse in the end, either. But it was still a risky move. If they were just a bit off during their attacks, the dimension would have started collapsing already."
Krune understood why they were in a hurry, it is because they already found out that someone is inside. They are afraid that their treasures are being taken away without even knowing. Hasik then checked the dimension formation once more and said.
"The Soul Forging Realm guys stayed behind to stabilize the passage while the Divine Soul Realm ones are coming. But they all fell inside the illusion formations. It will all depend on how long it will take for them to perceive the illusion formation and break out of it."
Krune knew that he didn't have time anymore and immediately asked what he should bring with him.
Hasik then passed the order for everyone to help gather the equipment necessary. At the same time, Krune set up the formation to compress the part of the dimension that he wanted to bring out with him.
One hour later, everything they needed was already inside the corner of the inner city that would be used. It only required Krune to finish the formation now, but that wasn't easy. Although Yusa had some knowledge about formations, Runestone formations are different after all. So she could only help with some of the outline parts.
Krune was sweating all over. Now and then he would hear some explosion coming from the distance as well. Those Divine Soul Realm cultivators found out that they are inside the illusion formations, and now they are using brute force to deal with it.
"It's done! Everyone; get back."
To take away part of an already existing dimension is a lot easier than making one. But because of Krune's cultivation Realm, it still was extremely hard. If not that Krune had Light Little, together with the Tribulation lightning, it would be impossible for him to compress it to put in the Spatial Box forcefully.
Krune then took a lot of spirit stones to help activate the formation. After that, a spherical barrier of around ten kilometers radius appeared inside the inner city. Everyone looked at that impressed, they could see the spatial ripples of silver light running around it. In the end, only formations can allow a low-level cultivator to manipulate spatial powers.
Krune looked at that barrier while controlling the formation. It then started shrinking little by little. But it took an entire hour to compress only 20% of the total size. Of course, the size of the space inside the barrier was still the same, it only looked smaller from the outside due to the spatial laws.
Suddenly, Hasik sent a message to Krune.
"Not good, the second gate entrance was found."
Krune was alarmed! That was the gate he was going to use to escape later.
"What about Shinja?"
"Don't worry. Thanks to Yusa's Runestone Formations, she was able to detect the Divine Soul Realm cultivator's Divine Sense before it broke through the concealing formation. She immediately entered the gate before that guy could see her. She is coming here now."
Krune nodded.
"Make sure to turn off the teleport formation that sends those from the second gate into the inner city."
"I already did that."
Krune was starting to feel worried, the time that the formation is taking to compress that land is too big. The illusion formations might not be able to stop the enemy for long enough. There is also the problem of the escape route, at this moment, he can only use the other two gates that are deeper inside the Danger Zone.
"Hasik, are the other two gates safe?"
"No, because of the illusion formations, the enemy in the outer city doesn't know the exact path to follow, so the third gate has quite a few cultivators or demon beasts nearby. Only the fourth gate is devoid of any presence for the moment."
Krune nodded and didn't say anything else.
Two hours passed, and everyone in Krune's group had already thrown all their spirit stones at the formation compressing the land. But the compression was still only 70% done. Krune could only use his Tribulation Lightning to finish the last 10% in one go. At the moment, it would be enough to force it to the end.
"Hasik, is it really not possible to take the sect's spirit stones?"
"Unfortunately, it's not possible. All the spirit stones are protected by the Dimension Formation. You would need to break through that to get them. Even I can't break that rule, it was something set up by the Mohie Sect elders back then. Only if someone passes the disciple tests, I will be able to take the spirit stones according to the reward."
Mile saw that they were running out of time and then said.
"Krune, you owe me two now."
She then threw all her spirit stones from her spatial ring inside the formation. Surprisingly, Mile was quite rich. She had over twenty thousand Rank Four spirit stones and almost five thousand Rank Five ones. With the new surge of spiritual energy, the compressing speed of the formation increased once again.
Boom!
"Not good, the cultivators are already outside the inner city. They are attacking the protection formation."
Krune was puzzled with that information.
"Didn't you say in the past that it could resist the attacks of Divine Soul Realm cultivators?"
"I did. But there isn't only one or two there, there are over ten of them. But that isn't the main issue, the problem is that one of the Soul Forging Realm cultivators is there too."
Everyone around Krune heard that and started to panic. They need to leave right now, or they will be caught by the enemy.
"Shinja and Ao, you guys guide the wisps and demon bests to the forth gate. I will be there after I finish here."
Mile immediately intervened.
"No can do. The forth gate is inside the core region of the Raskie Danger Zone, right? The moment it opens from the inside, the Soul Forging Realm protectors of the Danger Zone will immediately notice it. You are basically sending them to their deaths if you do that."
Ao and the rest felt a chill on their backs. Ruik then couldn't help but ask.
"In that case, what do we do? If our only gate in already like that, aren't we simply trapped?"
Shinja then shook her had.
"I know what Mile meant, once the fourth gate is open, it will attract the attention of the Soul Forging Realm protectors of the Raskie Danger Zone. But that doesn't mean that they will arrive as soon as it opens. As long as we are inside of the Spatiox Box Dimension and Krune uses his Tribulation Lightning concealment, they won't notice him leaving."
Mile nodded.
"You are right. Sadly, there are too many high-level wisps here. Otherwise, I could still leave this place with Krune, Ao, and Shinja right before everyone's eyes, and they wouldn't be able to do a thing."
She was talking about using Krune's identity as a Divine Path Sect Contestant to stop them from attacking. All they would do is to force Krune to show everything he has in his spatial ring or spatial box. Unfortunately, he can't do that.
The barrier was only 5% away from the last 10%, where Krune could use his Tribulation Lightning. The problem is that the further it is compressed, the higher the number of spirit stones needed. Mile alone was responsible for almost half of the total amount of spiritual energy. Still, it was only able to compress the barrier from 70% to 85%.
It was then that Hasik sent another message.
"Krune, not yet? The protection formation of the inner city won't hold anymore!"
Krune was out of ideas, he already asked Little Light if they could force the extra 5% to compress as well, but Little Light immediately denied the idea. He guaranteed to Krune that the power they have now isn't enough to do that. If he tried, he would run out of Tribulation Lightning power, and the last 5% would be even harder to overcome. It has to be 10% at the very minimum!
Everyone was looking at the sweat-drenched Krune. Lakin was especially furious that he couldn't do anything at the moment for his master. It was then that an idea came in mind. Lakin looked at Cassy beside him and then greeted his teeth. He returned back to his wisp form and rushed to the formation. He was planning to use his life to feed it.
Krune saw that and was alarmed!
"Lakin, stop right now! This is your master's orders!"
Krune then returned to his wisp form as well and was just about to intercept his disciple when suddenly, Mile appeared in front of Lakin and grabbed his core.
"Krune, focus on the formation. I will hold him."
Lakin was struggling to leave her grasp.
"Let me go! If I don't do it, all the wisps will become cultivation resources and die!"
Unfortunately for Lakin, there is no way he could get away from an 8th stage Core Formation Realm Demon Beast.
Krune saw that and let out a sigh of relief. He then focused on the formation once more. But the problem at hand was still the same, there was no more energy, and the natural spiritual energy from heaven and earth was far from sufficient. It was then that he heard a voice somewhat familiar.
"Well, I guess it's time for this old geezer to say farewell."