Cultivation Through Artifacts

When Liza's voice reverberated throughout the air, no one dared to talk nor move; everyone looked at Liza as though she was a complete fool, the world's dumbest Cultivator ever!

"No, I refuse!" declared Khal suddenly as he snapped back to reality, his eyes holding firmness, "I already decided that I will hold the robe and I won't pass it to no one!"

The abrupt exclamation made several Cultivators and experts there to turn surprised, while Jas only shook his head lightly, "That is true, but just as I said previously, if one wants the right, they can have the chance to challenge you. Just as you had the option to pass it onto anyone freely without objections, others have the right to challenge you no matter what. That is that simple as it is."

"I..." began to speak Khal, but found out he was unable to find his words. Right now, both his eyes and mind held so many different emotions that it was extremely hard to describe.

Turning his head toward Liza, Khal's face held confusion and worry.

Yes, worry! But not because he was scared of Liza, a so-called prodigy who was in possession of two powerful Talents that could overwhelm anyone easily, but because he didn't want to fight her! She represented her girlfriend, the only person who was able to put a bit of color into his life in so many ways while she was also Neo's childhood friend! He would instead kill himself than give her the robe and see her fight until her very last moment knowing he could have stopped her!

Yet, the moment he stared at Liza, her eyes showed the complete opposite of his; she was determined and ready. Ready to take away the Moon Robe from him!

But what Khal didn't see in her eyes was something way more significant... her reason! 

She didn't want Khal to hold such a heavy weight on his shoulder no matter what! In her eyes, he was still the Khal who she protected from bullies several years back when he was little and after what happened with their parents she refused to see Khal going through another hell!

Especially not if that meant he had to put his own life on the line!

Then she would do anything, even fight him until the end, just to stop him from participating in that shitty tournament.

Jas stared at the two in silence and closed his eyes. Knowing things won't change until he speaks cleared his throat and began to talk, "Well then, now that we have a challenger, let's find out who will have the right to hold it!"

Swish!

With a flick of his sleeve, space shook then twisted, changing the surroundings around everyone present in a flash; the crowd was teleported into the spectator seats in the arena together with the experts and teachers, while Jas, Logan, and Jane appeared on the platform's side.

"Wait, what? How did we get here?"

"He used large-scale teleportations? But how? Does the Principal has Space-associated Talent?"

"Definitely not! Only those on the Final Stage can do that and the Principal certainly not on the Ninth Cultivation Stage!"

"So then it must have been..."

"An extremely powerful Secret Art which could be on the Cultivator Level!"

"!?"

While others on the seats talked with bewildered expressions trying to guess the way Jas teleported them here, Liza and Khal were standing in the middle of the platform exactly 164 feet away from each other.

"Why?" was what Khal could ask before his complexion turned solemn.

However, what he did not expect that Liza's brief answer was so simple that even he turned stupified.

"Because I won't let you. You have experienced enough hell so far, so this is enough!" said Liza, her eyes holding unshakable determination, "Just as you don't want to fight me, I don't want to fight you either. So please, give me the Moon Robe, and let's avoid the unnecessary."

Khal watched Liza's body emitting a powerful aura from the Third Cultivation Stage, closed his eyes, and sighed.

"You are right..."

Liza upon hearing this turned a bit relaxed and even wanted to nod, but her body stiffened up the very moment Khal continued.

"But no matter how much I don't want to do this, neither I want to see you go through hell once again."

In a flash, Khal's eyes turned sky blue with a crimson slit in their middle, while a crystal black fan appeared in his tight grasp; right now, his face showed extreme tranquility while his body subconsciously took a fighting stance.

"!!"

Liza was stunned to see that instead of giving her the Moon Robe Khal decided to fight her, someone who had obviously greater chances to survive in that stupid tournament than him! This dumbfounded her a lot and for a brief moment was unable to find her words.

"The rules are the same. No killing, only knockout or giving up is allowed to achive victory," spoken Jas loudly, making both the crowd and the two in the middle into silence.

Once silence descended upon the whole arena, Jas raised his arms and glanced at the two in front of him.

"FIGHT!"

Swish!

Without wasting time, Khal's feet got enveloped by blue Essence and greased lightning appeared before Liza.

"There it is! The powerful Secret Art that let him crush hundreds of Cultivators at once!"

People watched with anticipation as Khal emerged before Liza and swung his fan, about to end the whole battle with a single strike, but to their shock, Liza's figure abruptly vanished from sight!

"Where is she?" was what everyone thought as the next second her figure arose right behind Khal, her palms covered with blue Essence!

"How?" Khal's eyes opened extra wide and wanted to avoid Liza's assault but he was caught completely off guard!

Without any chance to evade he was hit powerfully in the middle of his back, sending his body flying through the air and crash into the wall in the distance like a cannonball!

"Damn... I forgot she was able to use the same Secret Art!" cold sweat soaked several spectators' backs on the seats, realizing that Liza was a freak who was just as ridiculously powerful as Khal if not more!

Clatter!

Standing up from the debris, Khal's rigid-looking skin gradually turned back to normal, apparent he just used his Beast Core just before the impact.

"Bloody hell... She doesn't really hold back against me..." thought Khal as he locked gazes with Liza, "If it weren't for my Diamond Skin, a few of my bones would have broken just now."

walking out of the pit his body formed, Khal tightened his grip on his weapon and frowned, "But still... How was she able to mimic my Second Form? I don't recall showing it to her nor talking about it. Did she had a copy?"

Even so, a mild grin formed on Khal's face because he just found out something quite interesting about his Second Form, the Azure Snake Dance.

So far, he used his Essence around his palm as a protection field, as a way of defense. However, just now when Liza touched his back with her palm she used the Essence in a way to gather enough power only to thrust them all out at once, blowing away anything that was in contact with her palm.

"Interesting."

In that instant, like he just obtained enlightenment, Khal put his weapon away while his palms began to emit gentle blue light, alias Essence!

"Let me try this out too!"

Swish!

In a blink of an eye, Khal swung his palm toward Liza while concentrating on the Essence around his arm.

However, to his great surprise, Liza didn't try to avoid nor attack him from different angles, but simply took up a solid stance and threw her palm forward to counter Khal's assault head-on!

BAM!

With a wild eruption, the instant the two palms contacted with each other, a gust of huge wind broke forth, lifting the three experts' and the spectators' clothes on the front into the air.

But strangely, except that and the small fissures on the platform's surface, Khal and Liza stood perfectly before each other, none of them taking a step back!

Just now, they were equal!

"He is truly a tough opponent," exclaimed quietly Jane on the side, making both Jas and Logan nod.

"To hold your ground against someone who has not one but two powerful Talents on the same Cultivation Stage truly is an exceptional feat," said Jas with a soft smile as he played gently with his beard.

Logan on the other hand just simply stayed silent while his eyes always remained on Liza's figure. 

"She not only could copy Khal's Secret Art that she just saw, but she can use it almost to perfection! How does she do that?" the question made Logan ponder deeply, while watching as the two kids before him exchanged another blow from each other.

BAM!