Chapter 117 - Sacrifice.
Just as Krune heard that voice, he noticed a surge of spiritual energy entering the compression formation. He then looked in the direction of that voice and noticed that a wisp had thrown itself inside.
"You! Get out of there!"
That wisp heard Krune's orders but completely ignored him.
"Well, I was able to live without worry for a long time here. It was really nice, but I guess I had enough of this already."
Just like the previous time, Krune felt a surge of spiritual energy entering the formation from another side. Once again, another wisp entered the formation.
While Krune eyes were going red, Lakin was going crazy as well. But it didn't stop there.
"Haha! Lakin, you better take care of Cassy well. Otherwise, I will come back to haunt you as a ghost."
"To think that I would leave this world as a hero, not bad for a wisp, right?"
More wisps entered the formation and started to released their core energies inside. Krune understood what was happening here, so he couldn't bring himself to stop them.
It turns out that the wisps that are sacrificing themselves are the old ones. Lakin had gathered a lot of wisps, so it was evident that quite a few of them were at a higher age.
"Krune, Lakin. Don't worry about us old geezers, but make sure to take care of the young ones. That's all that I ask."
"He is right. Also, we have almost no hope to enter the Foundation Establishment to start with. So we would be able to live one or two more years at most anyway. At least like this, we can give hope to their future."
Krune could feel their determination, and as unwilling as he could be, he knew that he had no other choice either. Lakin, obviously, understood that as well. But he still wanted to stop them. Unfortunately, Mile didn't let him go.
All the wisps which were above eight years old used their own energy to feed the compression formation.
Finally, there was enough energy for the formation to finish it compressing up to 10%. Krune knew that there wasn't time anymore, he immediately contacted Little Light, and they started to coordinate.
Krune then gathered the Tribulation Lightning around the formation using his flying shields as conductors. Little Light controlled the energy so that it wouldn't go anywhere else. After Krune brought almost all the power he had available, he concentrated on the formation stability. He then told Little Light to send the attack any time he wanted.
Little Light was really good at it, the Tribulation Lightning struck the compression formation evenly from all sides. But even so, Krune was having a hard time to keep it under control. Fortunately, the last kick would be a one wave attack, so it took just a few seconds for the attack to be over.
Krune then threw the spatial box in the middle of the formation and immediately sealed that compressed space inside. In the corner of the inner city, there was now a twenty kilometers radius crater, and right in the middle, one could see a spatial box lying quietly. Finally, the pocket dimension spatial box with a life-support function was ready.
Boom!
"Not good, the inner city protection formation has crumbled!"
The only fortunate thing is that the inner city is also enormous. So even that Soul Forging Realm cultivator couldn't spread his Divine Sense to cover it all. Not to mention that Hasik was using the dimension formation to intervene with their Divine Sense too.
Krune couldn't waste more time, he immediately grabbed the spatial box and examinated it. Just as expected, the part of the dimension that he took away could be perceived inside, it was pretty much like a spatial ring. krune then came close to everyone and said.
"I will drag everyone inside, do not resist the suction power."
Lakin had transformed back to his human form but looked completely dispirited. Krune then gave him a kick an sent him flying over a hundred meters away. He then grabbed him back and said.
"Is that how you intend to act after what they have done for you? If that's all you got, then I don't need a disciple anymore."
Before Lakin could even answer, he threw him inside the spatial box too.
One by one, wisps and demon beasts disappeared inside. It only took Krune a minute to bring everyone into the spatial box pocket dimension. But Mile still stayed outside, though.
"Are you not coming?"
Mile just laughed and said.
"There is no need for it, I will stay here to catch their attention while you move to the fourth gate. Almost all powers of the Yule Continent are involved in the opening of this new Secret Realm, so the mercenary guild is obviously among them. Bary had already registered me for this mission too, so they can't find any fault with me. All they will do is to force me to show my spatial rings content."
"But you are different, you can't show what's inside your spatial box, so you need to leave without me. Now go, there isn't more time."
Krune nodded and immediately covered his wisp form with Tribulation Lightning, grabbed the items with spiritual energy, and left.
With Hasik's help, Krune avoided bumping on the other cultivators and demon beasts. He then used a teleport formation that was already active to teleport beside the fourth gate. All main gates of the dimension had teleport formations nearby. With the sheer size of the city, it would be inconvenient to move without them.
Before opening it, Krune asked what Hasik was going to do. He had spent quite some time with him, so he was obviously worried. Hasik heard about his concerns and just laughed.
"What are you even thinking? I'm just a sliver of will left behind, my true self is probably out there somewhere. So there is nothing for you to care about, just go."
Although Krune wasn't sure if Hasik true self was really alive or not, he could only believe him for now.
Krune then used his stats as Legacy Disciple to command the gate to open. Just as expected, everyone noticed the explosion of spiritual energy when it opened. The Cultivators and Demon Beasts inside the Secret Realm had already received the information that a second gate was open. So it confirmed the divination that said that someone had probably found a way in first.
"Someone is escaping! Fast, we need to stop whoever it is."
"But we are too far away from the place where that gate opened, it will take a few minutes even for Divine Soul Realm cultivators like us."
It was then that an old woman appeared, she was one of the two Soul Forging Realm cultivators that came out this time around. Her name was Kalie Nessa. She looked at the direction where the gate opened and said.
"Leave it to me, I'm much faster than you guys. Just make sure that we can control the inner city. I refuse to believe that whoever is there can leave the range of my Divine Sense in time."
She then looked at three Divine Soul Realm cultivators and said.
"You three will come with me, I need someone to protect this side of the gate."
Everyone heard that and felt relieved. With a Soul Forging Realm taking action, they wouldn't be afraid of traps on the other side of the gate.
Just as expected of a Soul Forging Realm, she was much faster than any of the Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts inside the Rainbow Sect Dimension. She only took a little more than one minute to arrive beside the Fourth gate. She then looked at it and snorted. She refuses to believe that the other side would have a trap good enough to hold her, much less kill.
She then left the three Divine Soul Realm cultivators inside for them to protect it. After that, she immediately crossed the elemental gate and appeared deep inside the Raskie Danger Zone. But contrary to her expectations, there was no trap on the other side. In fact, there was no one at all. It was evident that whoever had crossed the gate, left straight away.
But that wasn't all, she soon felt her body being scanned by another three Divine Senses, and they weren't any weaker than herself. A minute later, three figures appeared in front of Kalie.
"So it is the three protectors of the Raskie Danger Zone. Can you tell me what is happening here?"
The three demon beasts looked at Kalie, puzzled.
"We were expecting you to tell us what's going on. Suddenly, an elemental gate appears right in the middle of our Raskie Zone. Right after that, you came out of it. As far as we know, you were supposed to be overseeing the new Secret Realm exploration with Jin. Could it be that this gate is connected to that Secret Realm?"
Kalie wasn't sure if they were telling the truth or not, but she couldn't confirm it either. She then explained what happened and why she appeared inside their territory.
"Someone opened the gate and escaped through it? That's impossible! As soon as we felt its aperture, we used our Divine Sense to scan the location. However, we didn't detect anything at all. Are you sure that you weren't tricked into coming here while your enemy is still inside?"
Kalie then verified back inside the Secret Realm if something had changed, but the guys she left inside told her that nothing happened. Kalie then returned to talk with the three protectors.
"There are only two options, your targets only opened the gate to grab your attention and fled using another passage. Or they have a way to conceal their presence from our Divine Senses."
If it was the first option, then Kalie and the three protectors are just wasting their time here. But if it is the second, the targets might be escaping right under their noses at this very moment.
Kalie decided to return to the Secret Realm to keep watching its occupation. As for the three protectors, they immediately ordered all Divine Soul Realm or lower cultivators inside their territory to go out and search the place.
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Krune, of course, knew that he didn't have much time to move. Another issue is that although his Tribulation Lightning layer can keep Divine Sense away, it is very catchy to those who look directly at it. So his plan after leaving the gate was to move as fast as possible in a single direction and use Little Light's help to avoid any high realm demon beasts.
But that situation wouldn't last for long. Krune had used almost all his Tribulation Lightning power back in the compression formation, so he needed to find a place to hide as soon as possible.