Is That A Wisp?

"This rock pillar is quite hard," Krune expressed his shock, knocking the base of the rock pillar. It seemed to be completely made out of a type of rock that was so hard that he wasn't even able to dent it by using all his strength. 

The case was the same for everyone else. The rock pillar spanned at least a couple of kilometers in radius. So, calling it a rock pillar was definitely not correct. It was a hill or even a mountain based on what the standards one used to differentiate between the two of them were. Its height surpassed a kilometer, so it was definitely a massive structure. 

The walls were almost smooth, save for small indents at discrete locations that existed for namesake. They weren't big enough to be used as footholds to climb up, though. It was a big area that they were confident of scaling around to find a better path. Nevertheless, they were still running out of time. 

"Say, Yulian." Krune looked at Yulian and asked, "How long does it take for our cultivation to be completely suppressed?"

"I'm not so sure," Yulian shook his head as he replied. "The time when it happens is always different for every individual. It's one of the reasons why this region is mysterious. Then again, there's one thing I can say for sure."

His expression turned solemn as he continued, "When your suppression becomes permanent, you would be able to feel it. For bandits, it's a cause for celebration. But for normal cultivators like us, it's a cause for despair."

"If we try to climb normally, we might waste a lot of time," Krune frowned as he said.

"I don't plan on being here until that happens," Xula scowled, sighing a second later. "But, how do we know our way out without being able to see far away?"

"We can't. Climbing up is our only option," Vardin said as he gazed up, feeling the surface of the rock pillar with his hands. "It would be difficult, but I can still move upwards using the small indents. My wings aren't big enough to take flight, but they would stabilize my climb and prevent me from losing my grip. And, in the case I fall, I can use them to reduce the speed of descent to a fair extent and survive the impact."

"Do the two of you have any ideas?" Krune looked at Xula and Yulian as he asked. 

"I'm human," Yulian replied. "I cannot climb up fast or even reach the top in my state."

"My demon beast form is big and heavy. I cannot climb up in that form. As for my human form, I'm no different from Yulian," Xula replied after Yulian was finished talking.

"Then, we only have one option." Krune stuffed his pockets with Rank Two God stones, gazing at Vardin and Diana before asking, "How quickly can the two of you scale up the pillar?"

"Let me check." Diana soon turned into her demon beast form before starting to scale up the rock pillar. Although she was still able to traverse it using the tiny indents, it took her a lot of time. She was also getting exhausted with every step, making her wonder if she would even have enough stamina to reach the top. After all, she and Vardin had constantly been digging through the ground for more than 20 hours straight. 

"Alright, then." Krune nodded, taking out five shields as he laid them on the ground in a straight line. He then motioned for the others to look at him as he jumped on the shield at the center. The shield then radiated with a rainbow color as his legs spewed out Godly Energy.

He changed the structure of his Godly Energy to that of a foreign entity before his feet landed on the shield. Krune then accumulated strength in his legs as he crouched, feeling a powerful force push him as he also jumped using it as the foothold, speeding high up in the air. 

He traveled for 20 meters before the momentum fuelling him vanished. As Krune began to fall, he took out another shield, stepping on it at times to reduce his momentum, using the same tactic that sent him into the air in the first place. 

Krune soon landed on the ground, feeling his heart thump intensely at the action as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. "We can use this method to travel to the top. Descending is also easy."

As he spoke, Godly Energy gushed out from the Rank Two God Stones and replenished his reserves, keeping it at the maximum. Krune then calculated the energy expenditure he would need to traverse to the top of the rock pillar. He also calculated the time of flight and the intervals at which he would need to activate his Balance Laws.

He was still only able to sustain his Balance Laws for a couple of seconds at most. Also, he needed some time between each activation. So, Krune had to time his activation and calculate the concentration of the Balance Laws he had to layer over the shields. On top of that, he also had to calculate the amount of Godly Energy he had to expel out of his feet.

He also had to calculate the amount of Godly Energy the other four would have to emit to ensure that all of them traveled the same height. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to match the pace of everyone while they were scaling upward. After all, each had different body weights. 

"When I say jump, condense some Godly Energy on your feet as you jump on the shields," Krune said, watching the other four nod in response. 

He then layered a decent amount of the Balance Laws on the shields before shouting, "Now!"

Krune observed with focus, taking into account the amount of Godly Energy everyone was expelling, watching them all shoot up into the air with tremendous speeds. It seemed that Yulian had expelled the greatest amount, judging by his faster speed than the rest.

On the other hand, Diana had emitted the least Godly Energy, only flying up by five meters. He then saw her return to her demon beast form as she reduced the speed of her descent, landing on the ground gracefully as she reverted to her human form. 

The height reached by Vardin and Xula was in the middle of the two, reaching 8 and 14 meters respectively. 

Krune then controlled the shields, safely helping them land as he spoke, "I think this would give you an idea of the force you'd have to produce. We'll keep 20 meters as the goal and would seek to achieve that with every jump."

He then motioned them to jump once again. "Let's fix that right now, shall we?"

"Sure." Yulian was the first to nod as he jumped on the shield, shooting forth to an exact height of 20 meters. Xula was next, performing the same thing, followed by Vardin and Diana. All of them perfectly calculated the distance and only emitted the necessary amount of Godly Energy.

Once they landed using his shields as footholds, all of them recovered their Godly Energy, intending to stay in an optimal state. After all, it was a long distance.

"Will you two be okay?" Krune looked at Vardin, expressing his worry, "The two of you have been working all this time."

"We have rested enough," Vardin replied. "Besides, recovering using the Rank Two God Stones has rejuvenated us a lot."

"If you say so." Krune nodded, placing the five shields a meter away from each other as he controlled them with his Mental Energy, motioning everyone to be ready. He double-checked to see if the Rank Two God Stones in his pockets was more than enough to complete the journey as he activated his Mind Splitting Technique.

Just using Mental Energy alone wasn't enough to give him the power he needed. So, Krune had to control his Godly Energy into two channels. One was to control the shields in conjunction with his Mental Energy to give it a greater boost in strength. The other was to change its inherent nature and make it resemble the Godly Energy of someone else. After all, his own Godly Energy would experience any repulsion from the Balance Laws. 

He also had to ensure that the shields would move in time with their movements and react to any changes while keeping up with his teammates. Honestly speaking, it was incredibly taxing for the average cultivator. Thankfully, he had a habit of always using 102 shields. So, he was already trained in this regard.

"On the count of three." Krune took in a deep breath as he closed his eyes for a moment, beginning to count. He then shot his eyes open, marking their beginning, "Three!"

Without any errors, all five of them jumped on the shields that shone like a rainbow, getting repelled as the force sent them flying into the air. The moment they were sent flying, the rainbow light on the shields vanished as they shot up into the air, following them close behind.

The moment they reached 20 meters, lost all their momentum, and were just about to fall, the shields slammed into them once again as they radiated a rainbow light. The five cultivators made sure to time their actions, keeping track of their progress while also focusing on the shields below, making sure they were moving in sync. 

It seemed as if they had been a team forever, judging by how they were in sync with each other. Krune was surprised to see Vardin and Diana keep up with dextrous expertise, making him recall that they were stronger than the average cultivator, despite hailing from the Silver-Winged Mouses.

To be honest, he hadn't ever seen them being weak against any situation. They always seemed ready with a plan of action and possessed a decisive nature. The only exception was that their mindset wasn't of someone that never cared about money like Krune. 

But, that was all because they had lived differing lives. In the case of Krune, he was only poor for a short duration. For the rest of his two hundred-plus years, he had more than enough wealth to spend without care. 

"We're close to the top," Krune shouted after a while. His eyes were red while his body reeked with sweat. The others, too, were no different since the moves they've been doing were pretty taxing on their bodies. If it was them with their usual cultivation, they would have had a far easier time and wouldn't have even broken a sweat. 

"One more push!" Krune shouted as all of them landed on the shields, flying forward with the fastest speed since all of them didn't wish to take another step. They all shot forward, noticing the sides of the rock pillar change into artificial walls as they moved up, soon crossing the tip as they came face to face with a team of soldiers standing atop the walls, smiling as they looked their way. 

"What?!" Krune and his group had flown 5-6 meters above the walls as they noticed a massive facility below them. It seemed that the top of the rock pillar had been converted into an establishment of some sort. Though, seeing the huge numbers of soldiers, he had a bad premonition.

Krune hastily pulled in his shields, intending to send him and his group flying back in an effort to retreat from whatever the settlement was, only to realize that he had fallen into a trap. What seemed to be a natural formation had trapped him and his teammates into a sphere of formless energy. 

Fierce gales emanated from them that prevented his shields from closing in on them. Xula, Yulian, Vardin, and Diana's attacks failed to land on the energy sphere as they were sealed completely by the blowing winds. 

"Damn it!" Krune cursed as he was unable to even move his limbs. The power behind the winds was at the peak of the God Foundation Stage, way beyond what he was capable of handling. Moreover, the power manning it seemed to be without limit.