"Feifei…?" Krune asked as he felt his heart…core ache. "Why?"
He then continued, speaking after summoning all his willpower, "Why…does your chest look…smaller?"
"What?" The projection of Feifei was stunned for a moment before vanishing, causing Krune to land on the ground, sighing in relief upon seeing that his Wisp Core was intact.
"That was just an illusion."
Krune sighed. Even though he knew Feifei wasn't someone that would do something like that, it still came off as shocking.
"Right, if she wishes to kill me, she would straight up smack my face and not my back. That's in her character," he muttered, firming himself as he proceeded towards the second step, suddenly noticing Feifei before him, punching him in response as she cried.
Behind him was his daughter, Fie, crying as she hacked his back with a blade. Now that he had already prepared himself mentally, Krune wasn't as much affected as the previous time. Even though he knew they were fakes, seeing such emotions from his wife and daughter made him sad.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHe never wished for them to be anything other than giggles and smiles.
"This will never happen in reality. I'll ensure you'll be full of smiles always!" Krune continued to go up the stairs, firming himself every single time to never become what was shown in the illusions, eventually reaching the 1000th step.
But at the moment he saw it, he was stunned, unable to move any further as he was affected, tremendously so. This was different from every other scene he had seen. Until now, it was a scene of betrayal. Since he knew both him and those concerned weren't like that, he was able to firm himself and move forward.
But the scene before him…could very well be a reality one day.
It was a concrete, high-raised floor, sporting cracks all over as dried leaves flailed about with the faint wind. Beyond the concrete was a patch of lawn, on which rain fell. There were faint sounds of thunder while lightning occasionally flashed.
Ignoring all of that, Krune's attention was grabbed by the scene before him. Kneeling on the concrete floor was Feifei, sporting various levels of injuries. But at present, she was crying her heart out, unable to endure the level of sadness and pain she felt.
It was like she was tearing her soul apart, sporting an expression as if her world had been shredded apart. After all, lying in her embrace was a wisp, beaten and battered. Its Wisp Core had been shredded into fragments, with most of them having corroded to create a murky hue.
Its ethereal form gently morphed, creating a thin hand that slowly extended itself, gently patting Feifei's cheeks. "I love you."
Upon saying the piece, its ethereal form vaporized while the remaining fragments of its Wisp Core became powdered. Krune…was dead as Feifei stared at his crumbled Wisp Core with vacant eyes, having lost her sanity as she simply stared at the ground like a broken doll.
She remained as is, not moving an inch, holding the powered Wisp Core in her embrace as she slowly breathed her last.
"No!" Krune bellowed at the top of his lungs, unable to bear Feifei dying even if it was just a projection, a hallucination conjured by the Immortal Staircase. Until now, all he witnessed was his death. So, it was tolerable.
But now, seeing how devasted Feifei was upon his death, affected to the extent she became a husk of her former self and died from the pain of losing him, Krune was unable to endure, screaming madly.
He continued to shout, flailing about when he coincidentally moved out of the Immortal Staircase, reaching the end when the hallucination disappeared. He stared at the ground, at the soft patch of grass gently flailing due to the wind.
He then looked towards the Immortal Staircase, watching the figure of Feifei slowly walking towards the exit, tears streaming from her eyes. Anger, indignation, helplessness, and sadness. They were all evident in her expression.
It seemed she had seen the same scene as Krune, only with their roles reversed. The moment she exited the Immortal Staircase and noticed Krune, her figure flashed, wrapping him in an embrace. "I'll never let you go, never again."
Krune extended his ethereal form, condensing a pair of hands that he wrapped around Feifei, saying with a whisper, "Don't die before me."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Screw you!" Feifei shouted in response as she tightened her hold around him. "If you dare die before me, I'll kill you myself. Got it?"
As they remained in an embrace, a heavenly light landed on them, immediately causing a gust of memories and information into each.
Krune could feel this heavenly light grabbing hold of his Myriad Wisps Technique, his Mental Energy Technique, and his body cultivation method, fusing them into one before modifying them accordingly to suit him the best.
Krune could feel his cultivation base experience mind differences as even his Godly Meridians began to change, turning into something that better suited to his physique, one that was capable of making him exert his accumulations the highest.
Eventually, the fusion and modification process was complete as the brand new technique assimilated into his entire being, morphing his Godly Meridians. Krune could sense a name emerging from the depths of his mind, the identity of the newly created technique that best suited him.
Deific Wisp Technique!
Now, it was a single technique that cultivated his Spiritual Energy (Godly Energy after returning to the God Realm), Mental Energy, and body. This technique raised everything as a unified whole, allowing him to achieve greater stability and independence from the various methods required for each.
Now, as long as he absorbed Spiritual Energy and cultivated, he would be able to improve all three aspects simultaneously. This way, he would be able to perfectly mesh all three features in everything he did.
His cultivation was a whole now. Moreover, his Godly Meridians had vanished, now changing to accommodate all his abilities, including his passive and active abilities. Once the changes were completed, a new name popped up in Krune's head, causing him to mutter, "So, they're called Deific Meridians."