Cultivation Through Artifacts

Every person in the arena turned dead silent by the sight they just saw. No one dared to talk nor blink, cause what just happened was something quite...

Accidental? If you can say that...

"Pfft..."

Suddenly out of nowhere, a slight chuckle escaped from Alia's mouth, resulting in several Cultivators turning their heads toward her direction with thick frown placed on their faces.

"I... Am deeply sorry..." mumbled Alia as she calmed herself down, making her delicate face turn slightly rosy.

She realized that no one dared to laugh as they feared Khal would throw a tantrum once again just like the last time, but deep in her heart, Alia knew that Khal wouldn't get mad over something like this.

But still, no matter how much she wanted to laugh, she decided to stay silent to avoid unnecessary problems and apologized quietly.

As everyone waited in silence, Khal stood up slowly from the ground, holding his nose with a deep grimace and slightly teary eyes. His nose began to bleed because he failed to put his arms below him just at the last moment.

"Fuck, this hurts..." mumbled Khal and glanced over Liza who was still lying on the ground, but this time her mouth was slightly pouted even though her expression remained ice cold.

It was obvious she wanted to laugh, but decided to hold back to keep Khal some face...

"That little..." began to think Khal and glanced at his thighs that were still twitching like crazy from time to time.

"Using the Third Form puts a greater burden on my legs than the first two Forms put together! My thighs feel so numb I can hardly lift my feet!" mumbled Khal and titled his gaze at Jas and the two on his side.

Jas naturally noticed this and cleared his throat, "The fight is still going on, so..."

Khal understood Jas's meaning and looked at Liza on the ground who was ready to move, "Don't even dream about it!"

Activating his First Form and accelerating his Essence around his feet, Khal emerged before Liza in a flash and held his Devil Fangs before her, stopping her from standing up.

"Stay down..." said Khal quietly, locking his firm but passionate gaze with Liza's crystal clear eyes.

However, Liza was way stubborn than to listen to Khal and without hesitation swung her hand, blasting a thick flame ball at him. From that distance, Khal will have no choice but to jump away, and once he does she will defeat him in a blink of an eye.

Hence, she was about to manifest a Jade weapon out from her Talent when suddenly an unexpected sight happened.

With a casual flick with his weapon, Khal opened his dagger into a fan and did a sideways motion.

KA-BOOM!

As though firing several missiles from thin air, the fireball that could melt even a Fourth Stage Cultivator's defense got blasted into the barrier whilst the ground from Khal all the way there formed several meters deep and wide fissure, filled with debris and dust!

Every spectator and even the three on the side looked at this sight with dumbfounded gazes, while the barrier before them began to vibrate like crazy! 

The barrier that Jas formed with the help of a powerful Secret Art now showed signs of collapsing, while even wide cracks were formed on the place where Khal blew Liza's power a few seconds ago!

Just now, a Cultivator on the Third Cultivation Stage destroyed a barrier that was created by Jas! As this thought manifested inside everyone's mind, all the people present turned their gazes at Khal, their faces covered in thick drops of sweat.

"He is a freak... A fucking monster..."

[Notify! 'Body Essence' dropped below 50%!]

"Damn... Maybe I have overdone it a bit..." thought Khal as he watched what more than 400 units of his Body Essence was capable of with his Devil Fangs. 

If it weren't for the barrier, the Cultivators there would have been sliced and smashed into thousands of pieces of mincemeat for sure! He could have easily killed them with a simple attack like that!

Breathing in a mouthful of cold air while he began to sweat profusely, Khal glanced at Liza on the ground who was just as shocked as him.

"This is a chance!" thought Khal and said with a confident smile, "I won. Just give up... Please."

Liza raised her head and looked at Khal, and no matter what she tried to think of, she was in checkmate. She couldn't attack nor escape, she was simply helpless to do anything.

And this feeling of helplessness became even greater as she watched the emotion behind Khal's eyes. The way he told her just to simply give up made her heart tighten with indescribable pain while a deep sigh escaped from her mouth.

"I... Lost..."

"WOOOAAAAHH!!"

In that instant, every Cultivator and expert stood up with loud cheers as this was their very first time watching as a Cultivator beat a Natural Born Cultivator.

This sight for them was simply unbelievable!

"The winner is Khal!" Jas's voice sounded inside the arena, making the cheers even louder than before.

"Come, let me help you up," said Khal as he gave Liza a helpful hand to stand up.

Liza looked at the hand Khal offered and even though her heart ached for several reasons, she still accepted it, "Thanks."

After she stood up, Jane's figure appeared before the two and glanced at Khal with a tranquil gaze.

"You did well. Particularly your final attack. That Essence storm you have just blasted out with the help of your weapon... Where did you obtain it." asked Jane, her gaze fixed firmly on the crystal weapon in Khal's hold.

"I got it as a gift from my Master," replied Khal instantly, his words holding not the slightest of a lie.

"And ho-" began to ask Jane, but was abruptly stopped by Jas's voice from the side.

"Now that we have the winner, who wishes to challenge Khal for the Moon Robe?"

"!?"

Khal and Liza together with the crowd turned silent, surprised by Jas's question.

But to their relief, no one was bold enough to challenge Khal after seeing what he was capable of doing, especially not for the right to participate in that shit tournament!

"Well then it seems it has been decided." said Khal and turned to look at Khal, "The one who will represent our Academy in the Thousands Life Tournament will be Khal Nevio!"

"WOOOAAAHH!!!"

-

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After gaining victory and stopping Liza from obtaining the Moon Robe, Khal returned to Blade Mountain and sat against the cold and rigid wall.

"..."

The cave was dark and silent, but instead of putting loneliness into his heart Khal felt as both his mind and body became relaxed with each passing second.

"So many things have happened..." said Khal seemingly deep in his thought.

"Now the only thing I need to do is to become as strong as I can before the start of the tournament." 

Jas and Logan told him after his battle with Liza that on the tournament only Cultivators that enrolled this year will be present, but that didn't mean they won't be strong. 

A decade ago there was a Cultivator who massacred everyone in the tournament thanks to him being on the Sixth Cultivation Stage! That is why it is important to become strong at the start of the Tournament; the higher Stage he reaches the higher his chances to survive will be.

"That is why, I must concentrate on increasing my Body Essence over 1000 units then make both his Heaven's Eyes and Stellar Doman reach greater heights as fast as possible." pondered Khal, but still couldn't help but frown.

"Still, it would have been much better if Jas decided to help me with resources, so I can quickly become strong. Yet, he told me they won't help me except giving me knowledge about things I want to know... Weird..."

As Khal tried to figure out the reasons why, suddenly something began to move inside his pocket, turning his face confused instantly.

"Eh? This... I completely forgot about it."

Khal took out the Ruby Egg he obtained from the Ruby Beast's corpse in Moon Mountain and watched as it began to twitch from time to time.

Crack!

"!?"

Crack!

However, his calm complexion gradually turned into a stupified one as he watched small cracks form on the egg's surface one after another in a rapid manner.

"This can't be true..." mumbled Khal in a quiet voice.