Is that a Wisp?

Fated Encounter

For the cultivators of the planet of Makui, one of the best ways to improve one's own cultivation faster is by absorbing the energy of wisps. As beings of pure energy, they are very suitable for cultivation and are easy to assimilate. However, it's not recommended to do so.

It doesn't matter how pure its energy might be. As an intelligent form of life, wisps are also bound to have a different kind of energy from heaven and earth, which still has its defects if used for cultivation. Of course, for the other life forms on this planet, be they people or demon beasts, it's still a common practice to use wisps.

Sure the constant use of wisps might leave behind a shaky foundation. But for a planet where the strongest cultivators have barely passed the Divine Soul stage, such defects are not considered as significant. As long as you reach the Core Formation stage, you can already be seen as a godlike existence by its people.

Since that's the case, why bother with the detrimental side effects of using wisps?

As for how the wisps feel about that, who cares? With such a convenient way to improve one's cultivation faster, almost no one on this planet even sees them as a life form anymore.

The discriminated hunt of wisps made their numbers plummet to less than a thousandth of its original amount from a millennia ago. Because of that, the market's price has skyrocketed, which brought even more wisp hunters to their living places. And the forest of Katiu just so happens to be one of those.

Forest of Katiu, northern corner of the Yule continent. At this moment, there is a wisp running for his life! Well, that's if you consider floating at high speeds a form of running to start with. This is not the first nor the second time that Krune has passed through this situation, the higher the price of wisp on the market, the more hunters Katiu forest had around. By luck or by experience, Krune has extricated himself from them quite a few times already.

But today seems like Krune's luck has come to an end. He tried using his many times' sure-fire strategy of hiding within the river. But Krune didn't notice that he was already being tracked. In fact, it couldn't even be called bad luck anymore. Due to the small number of wisps remaining, the hunters have developed several new ways and tools for wisp hunting. With so few of them available, the hunters can't afford to let wisps escape anymore. They are worth way too much now. It has already become a market where the demand is too high, and even if you have the money, you could still end up with nothing.

Krune didn't know how the hunters kept finding him time and time again. After a full day of pursuit, he was already starting to feel tired. Even if wisps are beings of energy, they still need to absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth, which can be considered as their food. Still, he had no time to do that at all.

Finally, the hunters had led him to a dead-end, and he could already hear their approach. During the hunt, he heard them cursing at him several times every time he escaped, but what really made him hate them was the ways how they addressed him.

"Fuc*, this bag of money is too slippery..."

"The floating gold bar is here, after him!"

"Ahhh! My promotion ticket escaped again!"

Unwillingness!

Just because I was born as a wisp?

Why everyone only sees me as nothing more than that?

What did I do to deserve it? Why?!

I have always fled. I always thought that as long as I kept escaping, I would survive. But in the end, all that matters is power!