As expected, Yusa didn't save the guy any face as she said in response, "Where did this fly come from? Shoo, shoo! The intelligent living beings need to talk."
Shiar's face immediately warped as he responded in a haughty tone, "You dare talk to me like that? A puny 3rd Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator? Don't blame me for reporting your team for failing the mission only because of your arrogance. People like you put our Mercenary Guild's name in shame."
After that, he turned around and told the others, "Let's go. We have a mission to finish."
Of course, Krune completely ignored the guy. He went in front of Zuve Lie and took out the Blazing Alligator's blood, telling him, "Alchemist Zuve, here is the Blazing Alligator blood you needed. Please confirm that this is the blood you need."
Shiar, who was just about to leave, froze up in place as he thought, 'Did they just say Blazing Alligator's blood?'
Durin, who was by his side, kept up his poker face. If he told the truth right now, his leader would blame him for not telling him earlier.
On the other hand, Zuve Lie was ecstatic! He took the Blazing Dragon blood and used a few tools to check the validity of the blood. He then turned back to Krune, his expression even happier now as he said, "This is exactly the blood I was looking for! I will make sure to give a call to the Mercenary Guild today, and you'll receive every single point we've agreed upon."
Hearing that, Krune nodded while Ao and Yusa's expressions didn't even change. As for Shiar, he was angry to the point of exploding! He didn't believe that this group was really able to procure Blazing Alligator blood.
"Who do you think you're deceiving here? There is no way you guys could succeed in this mission! You obviously got this blood from somewhere else, and the guild has strict rules for this kind of activity. I was being nice at first, but you can just wait for the results later."
Naturally, Yusa was as relaxed as ever as she retorted, "Someone who can't even defeat me is boasting on the side. Durin, you should keep your friends under control."
Hearing her mention one of his group members' names, he could not help but become confused as he looked at Durin. Does that mean that he knew about this mercenary group?
As for Durin, he felt like he wanted to cry. He totally believed that they got the blood the normal way, so it would have been good if they had not called him out. Durin then sent a Divine Sense message to his leader, and Shiar's face immediately turned gloomy. He looked at Krune, and now that he thought about it, Krune's face really looked like the one in the news.
"So you're the so-called Four Star Foundation Establishment mercenary who thinks of himself as some big shot?"
Krune just nodded in response. With Durin Vola staying there, there's no way he could deny it since they participated in the same Mercenary Exam after all.
"I don't care about the so-called universe foundation. With your cultivation realm, you're nothing in front of me. If you're really that great, do you dare accept a challenge from me?"
Krune looked at this person as if he was an idiot. People of his level couldn't pose any threat to him anymore. If it wasn't for the fact that he didn't want to attract attention, he wouldn't mind opening this person's eyes. It wasn't because he was angry at all. Krune couldn't get angry that easily. It was just part of his nature! He simply didn't like it when people looked down on him. It made him remember the time when he was a weak wisp where everyone disdained him.
Shiar noticed that Krune wasn't saying anything, and he thought that Krune was afraid, so he taunted, "See. In the end, that's all your group amounts to."
Yusa and Ao know Krune quite well already, and they could tell that Krune simply wanted to keep his identity low-key. Then again, there was nothing low-key about it.
In response, Yusa was about to come forward. But just as she was about to accept, Ao stopped her and sent a Divine Sense message.
"I know you can fight, but you won't be able to defeat him. Don't forget that he's also a mercenary, which means that he can at least fight those that are one Stage above his realm. Your fight would most likely end in a draw, so let me do it. With my last breakthrough, I'm confident of beating him down."
Yusa pondered in silence for a bit and simply nodded in response. As for Ao, he looked at Shiar and asked him while taunting, "There's no need for Krune to come forward since that wouldn't be fair. How about me? Do you dare?"
Krune sighed after hearing that. The only one in his team that would have a problem in defeating this guy was Yusa. Well, she probably wouldn't lose. Most likely, no winner would appear. However, Ao broke through to the 4th Stage, and Krune personally guided him in his Wind Element manipulation. Unless this Shiar guy was a genius, he simply didn't stand a chance against Ao.
Shiar thought that the 'fair' that Ao said was about his realm being much higher than Krune, so he decided to accept the challenge. Of course, there were rules in the city, so people simply couldn't fight anywhere. With that, there were places where challenges could be taken, known as the arenas!
In the world of cultivators, it was very common for fights to happen. So, to prevent damage from occurring to the cities, every single one had an arena. If the cities were big, there might be even more than one! When fighting, someone's secret might be exposed. So, when one decides to fight it out, one could select whether one would want to let people see it or not. Krune had no idea about such a thing, so he simply let Ao do as he wished.
Ao didn't care either, so he didn't apply for their fight to be hidden. People soon gathered to take a look, and when Shiar and Ao came on the stage, there were already over ten thousand people watching. Rore City had a lot more people than Kaley City, so it was easier to gather people in a shorter amount of time.
While that was happening, Krune looked around and curled himself in a corner, trying to stay out of sight as much as possible. Yusa saw that and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. As for the two, Shiar looked at Ao and snorted. "This is your last chance. Apologize in front of me, and I can let you go."
Ao didn't even pay attention to what he said. He simply activated the arena's protection formation and stood in front of Shiar. After that, the referee came forward and stayed beside the arena. The law of the country prohibited killing inside the cities, so in case the fight went out of hand, it would be his job to put a stop to it. Every referee in the city must be at least at the Core Formation Realm, so there was no chance that they would be able to kill the other side.
Seeing that the two were in their positions, he raised his hand and asked, "Ready?"
Both parties nodded in response.
"Start!"
Poor Shiar. Ao's fighting prowess had already surpassed himself by quite a lot. The moment Ao took up his sword, he quickly disappeared. It could be called a miracle that Shiar could barely keep up with his movement. While the fight was happening, Krune looked at that and nodded in satisfaction. All the time spent teaching Ao about the Wind Element was not wasted after all.
Shiar noticed that the situation was dire. He was a Fire Element user, so to prevent Ao from getting close, he immediately created a fire tornado around himself. The temperature in the arena quickly soared, but Ao was as calm as ever, simply using his sword to throw a wind blade. The blade cut through the fire tornado as if it was paper, and in an instant, Shiar's protection was gone, just like that.
Ao sighed after seeing that. If he knew that Shiar was a Fire Element user, he wouldn't have stopped Yusa. With the advantage in elements, she would have definitely won this fight.
Shiar, on the other hand, was frightened! How could Ao be this strong? He did his best trying to defend himself as he tried to attack Ao with fireballs, fire dragons, fire rings, and other skills related to fire. Sadly for him, Ao's speed was just too high. Nothing could hit him.
A flaw soon appeared in Shiar's defense, and Ao didn't let the chance pass up. The sword moved like a ghost, and just as Shiar's head was about to fly out of his body, both Shiar and Ao were locked in place. The referee took action when he saw that Shiar was going to die. After that, he came forward and announced, "Ao Sulian wins!"
Shiar's face was as white as paper. If the referee hadn't stopped that attack in the last second, he would be dead right now. As for the crowd, they roared after seeing the end of the battle. They loved this kind of fight where those with lower cultivation realm beat those who were stronger.
After that, Ao left the arena before his group went back to Kaley City. They didn't even pay attention to Shiar after that.
---
After appearing in the teleportation formation inside the Solie Clan, the group left and headed back to the Mercenary Guild. However, before that, Yusa left them a message saying, "We put the fees of the teleportation on your Solie Clan's account. Thanks for the patronage."
When Zu Solie read that message, he felt gloomy. Long-distance teleportation always cost a lot of spirit stones, and their treasury was quite empty at the moment. Seeing the message made his heart ache quite a bit.
Back at the Kaley City's Mercenary Guild branch, they just checked in and found out that the ranking points from the mission had been added to their IDs. The mission rewarded 900 points, and because the highest cultivation level at the time they applied for the mission was the 3rd Stage of Foundation Establishment, they got a 30% bonus because of that. They all had 1170 ranking points right now.
Seeing that, they decided to gather again another time. For now, Krune's group would part ways to do their own things. Before each of them parted ways, Ao told Krune to inform him when he was out. He wanted to apply for a Mercenary Test again and would like to have Krune looking at it to see how his control over the Wind Element was doing. Hearing his words, Yusa took the chance and decided to do the same. She was also quite confident in being able to acquire a Three Star Badge. In response, Krune nodded to both requests, and after exchanging a few more words, they left.
Krune then went back to his room after passing by the salesroom. Using his Four Star Badge, he got a 25% discount when he selected 'Five Elements Paste.' Now, he only had 270 points remaining.
'With this 'Five Elements Paste,' my foundation should reinforce itself faster by 20% to 30% for the next few days. The information said that it would work for around 8 days. Then again, my universe foundation isn't something common, so I believe the effect will disappear earlier than it should.'
Krune then started to absorb the paste, and just as the description said, the speed that his foundation reinforced sped up by quite a substantial amount. Taking the chance, Krune didn't waste time at all. He immediately took out several hundred Rank Three Spirit Stones and started to cultivate.
---
Time went by, and just like that, six days passed. Inside Krune's room, there was a lot of spirit stone dust. Every time a spirit stone had its spiritual energy absorbed dry, it would turn into that. Krune had used over 500 of the stones during this time.
'I'm just a bit off from fully reinforcing my planet. The effect of the paste has already disappeared, but if I keep cultivating at this pace, I should be able to breakthrough in a week."
Krune then got up and stretched a bit. He hadn't left his room in the past few days and was starting to feel bored here.