Wano might have only been a stage below his opponent, but one must remember that he had already defeated someone stronger than him even though he was injured. Sure, he may have received help from Calina, Malaka, and Kentucky at that time, but during his last attack, he far surpassed his opponent's power.

That being said, he shouldn't have been in a stalemate with this enemy. He kept holding his strength back, waiting for an opportunity to release his full potential in one go. That moment didn't take too long to appear as Kentucky opened a way through the enemies with brute force. The leader couldn't ignore Kentucky, so he immediately turned around to attack the Minokawa.

​​

Seeing that, Wano sheathed his sword and assumed a combat stance. If one looked at that, it would seem quite a slow movement. However, in reality, it was extremely fast. Fire and Wind Element gathered around his body in the next moment.

*Vup!*

Suddenly, Wano exploded forward with speed even faster than the one he showed back in the valley entrance.

'One Sword!'

The Core and Soul Fusion Realm cultivator noticed Wano's attack with his Spiritual Sense. In fact, his Spiritual Sense hadn't left Wano for even a split second. However, he didn't expect Wano to be that fast. Not to mention that even though he had Wano in his perception, most of his attention was on Kentucky.

"Not good!"

The guy quickly turned around as he lifted his own weapon. He also curved his body to the side from pure instinct. That was all he could do since he didn't have time to conjure a Spiritual Energy barrier in time.

*Swish!*

Wano passed by the enemy leader in a flash. However, he immediately narrowed his eyes. Soon after, an arm was sent flying together with the weapon it was holding.

"Argh!"

There was no blood again. Wano's slash immediately cauterized the wound. Seeing that his attack failed to take the guy's life in one go, Wano immediately turned around and dashed in his direction. However, the enemy leader knew that he was at a disadvantage, so he fled without hesitation.

Wano wanted to pursue him, but Calina's group was having a hard time due to the difference in numbers. The Formation Masters noticed that they would need to fight, so they joined their hands against the girls.

'Lucky guy.'

Wano immediately turned around and charged at the rest of the enemies. That leader would definitely call reinforcements from the nearby red crystals. They couldn't stay here for long, or they might even encounter a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator.

With Wano joining the battle, the enemies were killed off quickly. Although two of them managed to escape in the end, this result was quite fortunate and above their expectations.

Kentucky's super attack, the distraction of the enemy leader, and Wano's own power. All of that together brought this quick result.

Eventually, Calina and Malaka were free and went to where Kentucky was. However, when they looked in the demon bird's direction, they saw it happily eating the Red Crystal.

*Crunch, crunch, crunch..."

Kentucky devoured the whole crystal in big chunks.

Kuana couldn't help but ask.

"What kind of bird is that?"

Wano shook his head as he said.

"We can talk about it later. We need to leave right now."

Malaka nodded and immediately called.

"Kentucky, we need to leave. Let's go!"

However, Kentucky only glanced at Malaka for a moment before he continued to eat the crystal.

"This fat bird! It can only think about food!"

Wano narrowed his eyes before he brought his sword out once more and attacked the red crystal. Since the bird wanted to finish that thing, they might as well separate it into several parts and make Kentucky follow the food with them. However...

*Clang!*

Wano's sword hit the Red Crystal, which was immediately bounced back due to its hardness.

"What?!"

Except for Malaka and Calina, everyone was taken aback. They know how strong Wano's attack is. However, all it did was to make a small chip fall down. Even Wano himself was shooked by that. That's because Kentuck would remove an enormous chunk of the Red Crystal with each bite!

"Just how powerful is this guy's beak?"

*Pah!*

Suddenly, Calina clenched her fist with Spiritual Energy and hit Kentucky's head. Naturally, Kentuck felt the pain since he wasn't hardening his feathers now that the battle was over. Well, Calina also felt pain when she did that but didn't show it on the surface.

'This dammed bird's skin is too hard!'

She then ignored the pain as she looked at the wronged expression on Kentucky's face.

"Don't look at me like that. Did you see what you have done?! If everything didn't go so smoothly, we might have been held down until more enemies appeared. Now, stop wasting time and leave this Red Crystal there. We need to leave."

Kuana saw that and found it strange.

"Can it understand what you are saying?"

Calina shook her head.

"Not really, but it can at least understand that I'm angry and that we need to leave now."

Wano nodded.

"Well, that already shows how intelligent it is. Perhaps it will really come with us and leave the crystal behind."

Kentucky then looked at the Red Crystal he hadn't eaten yet. However, he didn't want to give it up, so...

*Vup!*

*Crack!*

He pierced his beak into the crystal and used his body's strength to lift it up! Finally, he looked at Calina as if it was saying it was ready to go now. That was quite a hilarious scene. The Red Crystal was at least half the size of Kentucky's entire body. Nevertheless, it lifted the crystal no problem.

"Forget it. Let's go!"

Wano charged ahead with his Spiritual Sense spread as Calina and the others followed him. Kentucky came right behind, carrying the enormous bitten crystal.

Somewhere else, Rean and Roan suddenly stopped running and sat on the ground.

"What is it? Where is all this energy coming from?"

"Can't you feel it? It's coming from Kentucky's direction."

"I see... But how is this happening?"

[Seems like Kentucky found a huge source of Spiritual Energy. However, Kentucky's stage is limited by your own. Because of that, he can't advance while you don't do it yourselves. That being said, the extra energy he can't take is all being sent to you through your connection with him. Still, just what item could have such concentrated energy?]

Rean and Roan couldn't discuss since Spiritual Energy kept pouring into their bodies nonstop. The problem was that the energy wasn't Heaven and Earth's energy. It seemed to have an owner or a purpose before, so they could only take a small part of it. All the rest was being discarded.

Just like that, Rean and Roan spent thirty minutes absorbing the energy. Only then did the energy stop coming.

"Phew... Just how many days of cultivation did we save just now?"

"At least two or three. We better check with Kentucky later to see if he can find more of it."

"Indeed. However, let's not waste any more time. Let's go."

Rean and Roan quickly got up and charged in Kentucky's direction once more.

Meanwhile, a man was floating above the valley where the Formation Core was located. However, none of the Lakure Race members could see him, not even Jana. He looked down as his Spiritual Sense spread out.

Finally, he saw what seemed to be a room locked by several chains with many inscriptions on each one of them. Those chains were at a level that surpassed Heaven-Level equipment. Suddenly...

*Bang!*

The door trembled, and the chains tightened. They were pushed to their limits. However, the inscription held the chains together, not allowing the chains to break at all. Finally, the tightness of the chains went back to normal as the door came back to its original position.

A few minutes later...

*Bang!*

Exactly the same thing happened again. As the man observing it from above looked at it, he reached a conclusion.

'I see... So you're trying to escape, huh? If you continue attacking the seal like this, it will take just a few more years until the seal is broken. No wonder you used this natural formation. You needed time so that no one would bother you. Your subordinates did an excellent job.'

Suddenly, Spiritual Energy began to gather on the man's hand as he looked down.

'Unfortunately for you, you never expected that I would be in this place, right?'

However, after a few seconds, the energy in the man's hand disappeared as if it had never been there. Following that, he looked in the distance as he pondered.

'Hmm... If I fix the seal, no one will stay here to run this natural formation core anymore. Naturally, the time acceleration effect will disappear the moment the formation collapses as well. It would be nearly impossible to rebuild this time effect with the cultivation of others.'

He continued to think about it until he finally decided.

'Alright, I'll let your Lakure Race see the light for a bit longer.'

The man then looked in the direction where Calina's group was fleeing and narrowed his eyes.

'Leaving the Lakure Race aside... I didn't expect to find one more of them here. Is it a coincidence? Well, whatever. Let's see what will happen from now on.'

Obviously, the man was none other than Old Worm! From the beginning to the end, no one noticed his presence at all. Soon after, he turned around and left without leaving a single trace.

Somewhere else, the group composed of the Royal Family and the sects were having a hard time. Even though they had similar strength, their opponents' red meridians gave them a huge advantage.

Tiria then looked at Erbec, who was also in an awful position against the other Soul Forging Realm enemy.

'Senior Erbec, we can't hold on for longer. We might need to flee from here.'

Erbec knew that. In fact, he was already considering this option since he couldn't picture himself winning a battle against the other Soul Forging Realm guy. However, he was a member of the Royal Family. He really didn't want to leave this easily.

'What do I do?'