Shinja once more got locked in a battle against Hary, even though she hasn't fully recovered from the last encounter, thanks to Krune's pills, she got quite close to it, so she wouldn't have a problem to hold Hary for a while.
On Ao's side, thanks to the boost of the battle formation provided by the demon beasts spiritual energy, he was able to fend off the Infernal Beetle for now, but he too couldn't cause any big damage to it, fortunately, the same could be said for the beetle, the battle formation defense was airtight and Ao made sure to cover any flaws that appeared due to the short time of practice that this group had.
Yusa's side was a little bit better, with no late-stage foundation establishment cultivators on the enemy side, she was able to heavily injure two of the enemies already and was slowly gaining ground, grand part of this was because of the formations that she built earlier and the help provided by Lakin and Ruik, but she knew that things were in fact very dire, although Shinja looked fine on the surface, she knows that the battle against Hary was extremely difficult, and as far as she could see, Shinja hasn't been able to cause any damage to him so far.
Hary was ecstatic, that's because he noticed that Shinja was starting to lose efficiency, although she was still holding him back, he could feel that her battle strength was decreasing rapidly, Gory's side was also doing well, in the end, the Infernal Beetle cultivation is much higher than his enemies, it wouldn't take long before Gory achieved victory, the only downside was Yusa's side, but he is confident that his clan members would be able to hold them long enough for him and Gory to finish their sides.
Shinja finally showed a flaw and Hary's Flying sword left a deep cut on her waist, that cut forced her to show another opening which Hary used to kick her, Shinja was sent flying and hit the ground below, Hary used this chance to send his Flying sword over, but he was impressed to see that Ao was able to send an attack over in the last second, although it did almost nothing to his flying sword, it still bought enough time for Shinja to react and avoid a fatal injury, unfortunately, she was still hit by the sword and more blood flowed out, she was approaching her limit.
Ao's attack had bought Shinja some time, but it wasn't without any cost, Gory used that chance to hit a flaw in his Battle formation, he killed two demon beasts at once, although the formation didn't crumble, it lost a lot of its power, Ao also suffered a backlash from that attack and vomited some blood.
Yusa was seeing that and knew that they couldn't hold on any longer, just as she was about to send a Divine Sense message for them to retreat, she heard another Divine Sense message coming from the Spiritual Vein Lake Cave, Krune had finally arrived and thanks to the wisps inside the cave, he understood the situation straight away, unfortunately, he can't send the wisps over yet, there is no one of their team at the Solie Clan or the Harta City to help conceal them, if he wants to save the-wisps, he must win this battle first.
There was only one chance of doing that, and it was through his Tribulation Lightning, but he can't show his card that easily, he can only use it once and after that, he will need a lot of time to recover its power, he decided to use it to deal with the strongest enemy, which is Hary, Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to the others as well telling then to not alarm the enemies of his presence, Shinja, Ao and the others heard that and were ecstatic, but they complied to his request and pretended that nothing happened, Krune then silently joined the battle with Yusa, but he was only showing the battle power of an ordinary 6th Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Hary and Gory noticed him but didn't pay any attention, with the combat power that Krune showed, he wouldn't be able to change the flow of the battle.
The reason Krune appeared was because he wouldn't be able to accumulate the power of the Tribulation Lightning above in the sky without being noticed, fortunately, he really is at the 6th stage of the Foundation Establishment, all he had to do was to pretend that his combat power was really that of an ordinary cultivator at this level, after noticing that Hary and Gory ignored him, he finally was able to silently accumulate the power of the Tribulation Lightning high in the sky.
Krune might not be using a lot of strength, but he was still sweating all over, he only has one chance, if that fails, they will only be able to flee, and it isn't guaranteed that everyone would survive the retreat.
Finally, he charged used all the Tribulation Power he had available for him and waited for the right opportunity, he sent a Divine Sense to Shinja asking her to find a way to make Hary pay attention to her, she knew that it was the crucial moment of this battle, so she again waited for an opportunity and showed another flaw, Hary immediately took this chance and charged forward.
Krune saw that and his eyes lit up, he then commanded on his mind.
"Heavens Fall!"
But it was at this moment that Hary felt that something was not right, he had already fallen for a flaw trick before, and he felt like this one was very similar to the last time.
Hary focused on his Divine Sense when suddenly, he saw a scene that made his heart almost stop, right above him an enormous Tribulation Lightning was falling down straight at him! He immediately ceased his attack and focused all the power of his body to dodge the attack, the lightning brushed past him like a flash of light, he could even feel his skin burning a little due to the proximity of the attack, Hary felt a chill on his back, just an instant later and he would be done for.
Krune saw that and sighed, he has lost any hope of achieving victory in this battle anymore.
'It's over, I missed.'
Just as he was about to send a Divine Sense message to have everyone retreat, suddenly, he heard a voice coming from his mind.
"Missed? Ha! I refuse to believe that anyone in this world can dodge my power!"
Right after hearing that, something unbelievable happened that made everyone's eyes almost pop out of their sockets, that Tribulation Lightning which had just passed by Hary's side… made turn back! It once again charged straight at Hary.
Hary saw that and was alarmed! Since when can Tribulation Lightning make curves? Of course, if he was present on the day that Shinja broke through into the Core Formation Realm, he wouldn't think like that, unfortunately for him, what happened that day was kept as a secret inside the Mercenary Guild.
Hary once again tried to dodge, but this time, Krune used a Divine Sense attack to assault Hary's soul, due to the difference of cultivation between him and Hary, this attack couldn't do much more than stopping Hary for an instant, but that was all that Krune needed, Hary didn't have time to put up any kind of defense, and the Tribulation Lightning struck him head-on!
BOOM!
The Tribulation Lightning exploded with power inside Hary's body, worse than that because Hary was in the sky, the power of the lightning had nowhere to go, it then created havoc inside his body destroying the majority of his meridians and crippling his dantian, by the time that the power of the lightning finally dissipated, Hary had already been burnt to the point that he looked charcoal.
Hary's body plummeted from the skies and hit the ground, the battle that was so intense just a second ago had totally stopped, it was so silent that one could hear their own breaths.
Everyone focused their Divine Senses on Hary's body and surprisingly, they noticed that he was still alive! Of course, he was in no condition of causing any problems anymore.
Krune saw that and let out a sigh of relief, but then he remembered that voice that appeared in his mind, now he is absolutely sure, he wasn't hallucinating during the first time he heard it, the tribulation lightning in lingering in his soul really had a sentience of its own!
But now wasn't the time to care about that, Krune sent a message to Shinja and asked her to talk things over, the enemy still had one Core Formation Expert and his group was in no shape to continue battling, understanding what Krune meant, Shinja came forward to deal with the aftermath.
"Your friend there can't fight anymore, but we also don't wish to have a battle to death in this place, if we really do that, although I'm confident of our victory, we would lose a lot of our friends if you decided to throw caution to the wind, we aren't giving you any wisp, the question is if you want to die here or leave with just some injuries, it is up to you."
Gory heard that and reverted to his human form, as a Demon Insect who preferred to live in the Danger Zone, he cared little about people knowing about his human face or not, he then looked at Hary and sighed, he could be said to be an acquaintance of Hary, they have known each other for over a hundred years, after all, not to mention that Shinja's words weren't wrong, with Hary out of the picture, he had very little hope of achieving anything in this place, he decided that he would first retreat with Hary and then gather more forces to come and take the wisps away, he still haven't given up on those 9th stage wisps that could possibly allow him to breakthrough into the next stage.
"Very well, you lot of the Cout clan, we are leaving."
Gory took Hary's body and together with the remaining members of the Cout Clan, he left straight away.
How could Shinja and the others not notice what he was planning? But that was fine, they just need a few minutes and everything will be over, Krune looked at everyone and said.
"Alright, we are teleporting all the wisps straight away, I already tested the teleport formations on the way here, so everything is fine."
Krune then looked at the demon beasts that were bound by the contract to protect the cave and then at Lakin, his disciple noticed what he meant and came forward to talk.
"We are leaving the Katiu Forest for a very long time, maybe even forever, so according to our contract, the wisps that you should protect aren't going to be here anymore, so you are now free to do whatever you want, I believe that with the experiences you had today your cultivations will soar in the future, our relationship is over here."
Hearing that, the majority of the beasts left straight away, to be free of the blood contract bindings was the best news they heard today, they got a lot to digest from today's battle as well, not to mention that those guys would definitely come back later with even more forces, staying here would be suicide.
Lakin looked as demon beast after demon beast left one after another, but in the end, there were three demon beasts that stayed, Lakin looked puzzled at them.
Krune saw that too but didn't say anything, Lakin was the one who gathered those guys, and whether he decides to take them in or kick them away, it is his problem.
Krune went back to the Spiritual Vein lake, before activating the teleport formation, he took out a few Healing Pills that he had been keeping for situations like this, he looked at the state that Shinja and the others looked like but didn't say anything, between real friends, no words were necessary, he just carved today's events in his heart.
While Yusa and the others were recovering, Lakin appeared inside the Spiritual Vein Lake Room and behind him, one could see those three demon beasts from before.
Krune laughed at that sight.
"Are those your new friends?"
Lakin and those demons seemed a little at loss with that question.
"I guess you could say that."
There wasn't even a need to mention the Lizard Dragons, they obviously were there as well.
Slowly, Yusa and the others stood up, they didn't have time to waste here, after all, Krune then explained how he set up the formation at the Raskie Danger Zone, there is also a Concealing formation to hide their presence once they get there.
"Alright, we need one person in each formation, Yusa has the Concealing Runestone Formations, one for the Solie Clan Formation and one for the Harta City Formation, the one in the Raskie Danger Zone already has one like I said, Ao will stay in the Solie Clan, Yusa will check the Harta City's, Shinja has the highest cultivation, so she takes care of the Raskie Danger Zone, she can simply scare away any beast that approaches the formation, I will stay behind to send everyone, any question?"