Although Krune was caught by surprise, he didn't stop moving this time, so no one noticed anything.
"Light Spirit, did you see that?"
Luvile Immediately replied.
"Yes, your Elemental Meridians absorbed those lights. But it was far from the amount that entered the earth earlier, just a tiny bit."
Krune then focused on his Elemental Meridians, but couldn't see any difference what so ever. Except, of course, for the fact that he could feel the direction that they wanted him to go. Still, just before those light came out of the ground, Krune had felt that his Elemental Meridians' target had changed for a second. The same second that the Lights were absorbed by them.
"What is happening here? I'm sure that it was my Elemental Meridians that absorbed them, but I can't see anything different in them."
Light Spirit then gave an idea.
"Try to cultivate a little while we are moving. See if there is any difference in the amount of Spiritual Energy absorption or Elemental Source Energy Conversion."
Krune did as he was told and started to cultivate. With his Mind Split Technique, he could totally do both things at the same time now. The only reason that Krune doesn't keep cultivating all the time is that he needs his Meridians for Battle as well. So it is better to leave them always ready for any dangers that might appear.
Krune cultivated for a few minutes, but in the end, he just felt puzzled.
Light Spirit then asked.
"How was it, any difference?"
Krune pondered a bit and replied.
"I can't tell for sure, I do feel that there was some difference in the amount of Elemental Source Energy converted. But it is so small that I can't even tell if it was more or less. In fact, I might be even wrong about it to start with."
Light Spirit thought about what happened and then suggested.
"Most likely most of the Elemental Flowers, if not all, will be protected by demon beasts. Next time, don't wait for your meridians to act on their own, try to absorb the lights on your own and see if it makes any difference."
Krune nodded.
"I will try. But just in case it is something bad, I will take just enough until I can tell what difference it does in my Elemental Meridians."
Light Spirit agreed with Krune and waited for the next time they found an Elemental Flower.
As expected, the region where everyone appeared had almost no flowers anymore. So instead of looking for it, Krune and his group decided to rush forward in the direction of the exploration team. Of course, the exploration team had long since left their Divine Sense range. But they at least knew what side they moved.
"Let's move straight for a day or two first. It should be enough to open quite some distance between us and any other group. Even the groups from the other paths will probably not move as much as this. As for all the explorer teams, I'm sure that they all have rushed far ahead of us too."
Everyone nodded, and they moved as planned. On the way, Rarol felt like he could find some flowers if they moved in certain directions. Still, they ignored it and kept moving forward.
They did find other demon beasts, old formations, and the like on the way. But since they were trying to avoid all of that, they did their best to leave all of it behind too.
Finally, after two days of travel and a lot of battles and problems with the local formations, they stopped to recover.
Marshine looked at everyone and then said.
"Alright, this should be more or less enough to avoid most of the other teams. Thanks to Rarol's instincts and Jolk's ridiculously powerful Divine Sense, I doubt anyone moved as far as we did. If we still had to battle that many times with this advantage, then let alone the groups coming after us. Of course, except for the exploration teams. But we have no need to care about them for now."
Krune, or better, Jolk, suggested.
"It's okay to start looking for Elemental Flower now, but I think we should do it while moving forward. If we waste too much time in a single place, the other teams will definitely catch up with us."
Everyone nodded, and they immediately started the search after recovering their energy.
As expected, this was already a region where the groups from the previous Elemental Path opening haven't touched yet. Thanks to that, Krune's group was able to find a batch with Seven Flowers in less than an hour. Of course, with more flowers, there were more demon beasts as well.
Krune looked at them with his Divine Sense and said.
"One 4th Stage Divine Soul Realm, Two 3rd Stages and another Two at the 1st Stage. There is no one in the 2nd Stage in this group."
Tinnian looked at Krune and asked.
"What about the two of us deal with the 4th Stage fast while the others hold the lower realm ones. Once we finish it, we can move to one of the 3rd Stage ones."
Krune and everyone else accepted the idea, and they immediately took action.
First, Krune and Tinnian separated the 4th Stage Demon Beast from the others. Only after that did Tinnian change into full attack mode while Krune provided support. Soon, that 4th Stage Demon Beast started to go all out as well. But it was still not a match for the combined effort of Krune and Tinnian. Yet, it couldn't flee since it would mean that the flowers would be plucked.
As for the others, they were holding back their targets without any issues. They weren't forcing their enemies into a corner, just preventing them from intervening in Tinnian and Krune's battle. Since they didn't have intelligence, they didn't notice that this action was driving them into their end.
Finally, Tinnian and Krune were able to defeat the 4th Stage Demon Beast and immediately selected one of the 3rd Stage ones to attack. It was the demon beast that Marshine was holding back. As for why they selected this one, that was because Krune, or Jolk, said so.
"That level of demon beast wouldn't be able to do anything to Feier. Let's just give a hand to Marshine and Filio first."
One by one, Krune's group dealt with the demon beasts. After that, the same thing happened again, and the Core Formation Realm and below demon beasts attacked them once more. This time they were prepared, though. Krune's group then disposed of those demon beasts very fast without using much energy.
When the time to pluck the flowers arrived, Krune asked Feifei to take his one for him. He had already discussed with her about what happened, so Feifei just nodded and went forward.
Sure enough, the Demon Beasts' bodies started to disappear right after the last flower was plucked. Krune then approached one of the Core Formation Realm beasts. As soon as it started to become specs of light, Krune commanded his Elemental Meridian to absorb them straight away. As expected, his Meridians acted like a shark that sensed blood and ate everything.
Not only that, but even the nearby specs of light from the other beasts bodies ended being absorbed as well. That really took Krune by surprise, but not as much as everyone else who was watching him.
Marshine couldn't help but ask.
"Jolk, is there anything good in those lights for you to absorb them?"
Krune looked at Marshine and answered.
"I don't know, that's why I'm absorbing them. I want to see if I can get something from it."
Rarol went close to one of the demon beasts' lights and tried to do the same. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what he did, he couldn't absorb them.
"How did you do that? I can't absorb them at all!"
Krune didn't know what to say. After all, even he didn't know why his Elemental Meridians wanted it so much. He looked at Feifei and asked.
"Feier, can you try it as well? See if you can absorb it."
Feifei nodded and tried to use her Elemental Meridians. Surprisingly, her Elemental Meridians also absorbed them. Not only that, but even Feifei could feel like they were delighted with that meal.
"I can absorb them as well. It seems like it has something to do with our Cultivation Technique."
Tinnian then asked.
"Which one?"
Feifei, or better, Feier, shook her head.
"It's our Sect Secret, so I can talk about it."
Rarol just shrugged his shoulder and said.
"Well, whatever. Whether Jolk or Feier can absorb them or not means nothing for the rest of us. After all, if they weren't here, those lights would simply go back to the earth. It's not like they are stealing something since we couldn't get them anyway."
Indeed, none of them have ever heard anything about absorbing this light. If it was something important, it would definitely be described in the Mission Hall request. In the end, Jolk and Feier being here or not wouldn't change that fact.
Still, Marshine felt like she was losing something, so she asked.
"So, what's the difference when you absorb it?"
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om