Is That A Wisp?

After Krune left the room, Nina began to ask a lot more questions. How did her Dantian get fixed? After all, she knew that it was deformed. How did she cultivate all the way to the Soul Forging Realm? How come someone as strong as Krune took her as a disciple? Lino, of course, answered all of them as well as he could. However, Nina finally asked the thing that was puzzling her the most.

"Why did you get so angry? That senior didn't mind that I forgot about him, so why did you?"

"This..."

He wanted to tell her how the real reason. Yet, he shook his head in the end.

"That was a mistake, don't worry."

Nina knew her brother. She was sure he was hiding something. Still, since it seemed something like a difficult topic for him, Nina decided to not ask anymore. Besides, she can't remember anyway, so it wouldn't change anything.

Time passed, and two weeks went by in a flash.

In the end, Krune was right. Nina didn't remember the lessons about cooking, but her real skills were still there. She learned everything again several times faster than before. Another point worth mentioning was how much she began to admire the Rainbow-Colored chef... again. Of course, she also came to know the other employees of the restaurant once more. They heard from Krune about what happened, so they helped her too. They told several stories about their past with her during the various years working for Krune.

Still, Nina felt like they were refraining from saying something; she just couldn't tell what it was.

The truth was that Lino told everyone to keep the fact that she liked Krune before a secret. After all, they all knew that Krune was completely oblivious to this kind of thing and only had eyes for his wife that no one had ever seen. Since there was no future for Nina, it was better if she didn't know about it.

Krune's restaurant began to make success again. During that month, it got full once more with waiting lists. However, the list went just until the moment he had to leave for the next Sealed Space. He refused to take any reserves for later since he would never know how long he would really stay out.

Jilin, one of the chefs that worked in the kitchen with Krune and Nina, decided to take the same offer as before. While Krune was gone, they would open the restaurant but only make Spiritual Dishes of their level. Krune didn't have a reason to refuse it, so he let them do as they pleased. Besides, it would be a good opportunity for Nina to redevelop her skills as well.

Finally, the day for the next expedition into the Sealed Spaces arrived. This time, the Top Quality Godly Energy Vein was inside the Three Peaks Sect territory, so the Sky Shifting and Flower River went there. Surprisingly though, both Tosely and Franlia acted as protectors for this travel.

The reason for that was quite apparent. Everyone already knows about Krune's ability to retrieve Top Quality Godly Energy Stones. That being said, there might be a chance of the other two sects joining forces to somehow get rid of him. Franlia, of course, wouldn't let the golden egg's duck be killed this easily.

As for who would protect the sect while they were out, Franlia wasn't worried. After all, her husband, another expert at the God Core Realm, was still there. It's just that no one knows about him. If someone really decided to attack, he could hold the fort.

"Are you all ready?"

Krune and his companions nodded. Another thing that happened was that most of Krune's members were the same as in the past. Jimage and Rui were the Divinity Realm members, being at the 9th and 6th Stages, respectively. Instead of using the Top Quality Godly Stones they got for breakthroughs, they preferred to hold onto them. After all, they could tell that Krune and Iem would most likely be called to the next exploration. Knowing that both of them could fight at the Divinity Realm level, their group would have a huge advantage. Not to mention Krune's perception ability far surpassed their own. Going into the Sealed Space with those two was bound to give them many more Top Quality Godly Energy Stones as rewards.

As mentioned before, Xanala, the 3rd Stage Divinity Realm from the previous group, did not make it out. In the end, she could only be replaced by someone else, a demon beast called Kava. To be more specific, he was a plant demon of the Dark Willow race. Although the species wasn't anything that impressive, they were still relatively rare. Well, plant demons are already quite rare to start with.

Other than Xanala, Ramona and another Semi-Divinity Realm of their group also perished during the last journey. Still, that couldn't be helped since everyone knows the circumstances they were in. In a certain way, it was already a great achievement that only three out of ten died in the end. The other sects didn't do much better. The Flower River lost four members as the Three Peaks lost three. 

As one can imagine, the new members looked at Krune and Iem with interesting expressions. But they were even more puzzled by the fact that the other members didn't seem to mind their cultivations. Both Krune and Iem were at the 2nd Stage of the Divine View Realm. Krune used the Heavenly Fragments to get to that level. As for Iem, he didn't have anything to do with Nina and Lino, so he received his full rewards. He got lots of Top Quality Godly Stones, which he used for cultivation, allowing him to reach the same level as Krun in that month. That shows just how much better those Stones were compared to lower-level ones.

Jimage, of course, could tell what was on their heads, so he warned them with a Divine Sense message.

"Don't mess with those two. Other than Rui and me, none of you are their match. Also, they are the most important members of our group at the moment. If I were you, I wouldn't try to buy a fight because of their cultivation. Of course, if you wish to humiliate yourself, by all means, go ahead."

Kava and the other new Peak Semi-Divinity Realms were taken aback by those words. Still, since even the Peak Divinity Realm was that wary, they decided to not try their luck.