Cultivation Through Artifacts

The moment Khal stepped off from the bridge, suddenly Alde walked to his side and put his hand gently on his shoulder.

"Life is truly unfair, isn't it?", said Alde with a smug smile etched on his face as he glanced at Khal from the side.

Khal turned his head to the side to stare at Alde, only to see a pair of eyes looking at him with disdain like he was just trash.

Seeing those eyes, suddenly Khal remembered back at his father's expression and his mood instantly became bitter.

Those eyes were exactly like his father's. He was always looked at like that when he made something wrong that didn't satisfy him. He always stared at him with disgust and disdain, making him to loathe that man to his very core right until at this very moment.

Simply looking at those identical eyes and that sarcastic smile, Khal felt like throwing up and punching Alde right in the face.

But he also knew that this wasn't the perfect time to do so, so he simply needed to overcome the feelings inside him no matter what.

He didn't want to make a bigger commotion than this.

"Life is definitely unfair.", said Khal calmly as he looked at the hand on his shoulder.

Alde's smug smile on the side turned even wider as he heard this and wanted to say something when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his arm.

"!"

Khal grabbed Alde's wrist powerfully as, and while pushing the hand away from his shoulder, he said, "But even like this, I know for sure that there is a solution. I don't know when, where, or how, but when I find it, I will definitely wipe that ugly smug off your face. You just wait patiently."

With that, Khal threw Alde's arm to the side and continued to walk toward the exit, without saying anything more.

"You piece of sh-!!!"

"NEXT ONE! NOW!"

Hearing Famir's furious shout, Alde stopped talking. Clenching his hand into a tight fist, Alde glared at Khal for one last time, and started to walk toward the Altar with an angry expression.

"Just you wait! I will show you just what true despair is and you will beg for my mercy!"

While Alde walked before the Destiny Stone with a maddened expression, Khal walked out of the Realm Pillar with Liza and Nate following him behind closely.

The moment he walked down the few stairs that led toward the street below, suddenly Miss Mary's warm and calming voice sounded from the side.

"Ah, finally! Here you are! How did it... go... Huh? Did something happen?"

Miss Mary look insanely happy to see Khal and Liza again, however, the moment she saw Khal's terrifyingly calm expression with Liza's and an unfamiliar boy's unhappy face in the back, she instantly knew that something must have happened.

Nate hearing Miss Mary's question cleared his throat gently and with a bow, he said, "Umm... It was a pleasure to meet with all of you. However, unfortunately, I need to leave. I still have personal matters to attend to."

"Sure.", said Khal with a nod, and without saying anything more, he continued to walk forward.

Liza knew that Khal was not in the mood to act polite, so she turned toward Nate, and with the same noble bow, she said, "Please forgive him. I know he was pleasured to meet with you too. I hope we can meet in the future someday."

"Naturally.", said Nate with a gentle smile, and with a wave of his hand, he walked away hurriedly.

After waving him off, Liza stopped smiling and turned to look at Miss Mary.

Miss Mary noticing Liza's expression, thought for a while and asked quietly, "So? How did it go? Did you get your Cultivation Talent?"

"Yes, I got, but Khal...", started to explain quietly Liza, but the moment she saw Khal's back before her, she sighed and shook her head.

Miss Mary immediately understanding the situation, widened her eyes, and asked, "Don't tell me he..."

"I don't want to say it, but unfortunately, this is the harsh truth."

Hearing this, Miss Mary's expression became even more stunned and looking at Khal, her eyes turned instantly sad.

"Oh, my Lord... Why him?"

***

After walking for almost an hour in pure silence, Khal opened the orphanage's entrance, and without thinking of anything else, he walked up into his room.

Liza seeing Khal like that felt like her heart would break, so she wanted to go after him, but before she could have done so, Miss Mary stopped her.

"Don't go. Just give him time and everything will be fine. Going now would only make things worse. Believe me."

Hearing this, Liza stepped back and looked at Khal's room door closing in silence, not knowing what she should do.

While the two remained down in the hall, Khal decided to read the whole diary again, looking for any keys that could help him in this situation.

From beginning to the end, Khal read every word and sentence with insane determination, fearing that if he misses something, even if that something was a small detail, he wouldn't be able to find what he was looking for.

His expression was so serious to find a way that if someone would have seen him in his current state, they would have gotten stupefied instantly that was for sure.

Widened eyes and extreme concentration that could be even felt in the air. He read everything from start to end, while ignoring everything else around him.

He even missed the few times when Miss Mary and Liza came up to his room to ask him to go eat, which was quite frightening.

However even after reading the diary from the first page to the last from time to time again, he couldn't find anything useful at all. Not even a small thing.

Except of the Ceremony's process and a few small information about this world, there were not a single helpful information which could have helped him the least.

He even read through the several books from the bookshelf he found, but they were totally useless to him.

Putting down the book he was holding, Khal sighed deeply and thought, "But it's only natural. The diary and those are just simple books, so how could have I thought they would help me at all? How funny and pathetic..."

With that said, Khal looked at the outside scenery through the window, only to see that the moon was already high up in the sky, indicating that it was already midnight.

"Huh? How long had it been since we came back? The sun was still high up when we left Moon City. Was I that mesmerized by reading?"

*Grumble!*

As Khal was looking at the half moon outside his window, suddenly his stomach gave out a loud rumbling sound, making him to touch his belly with a slight frown.

"Ahh... It seems I'm hungry. Yeah, now that I think about it, I didn't eat a single thing since morning."

As he said this, Khal stood up and opened his door, only to see sheer darkness all around the place.

"Hmmm... It seems everyone has gone to sleep already. Then I think I can try my luck to see if I can get something to eat.", said Khal quietly and with silent steps, he started go walk down into the hall, then right into the eatery.

Opening the door into the diner, Khal looked around to see if there was anyone around, but just as he thought there was no one.

"Great.", said Khal with a nod and walked inside completely, but the moment he did he noticed something on the table.

"Huh? Food?"

Seeing the meat on the table, Khal realized that Miss Mary has thought about him and made sure that before going to sleep she left a slice of meat for him.

"What an angel.", said Khal with a smile, and without hesitation, he walked before the food.

Touching slightly the side of the meat to see that it was still hot, Khal felt the satisfying temperature and thought, "It seems she went to bed not long ago and warm it up one more time. She is really something else."

As he thought about this, he grabbed the flatware from the table and wanted to start eating, but suddenly noticed something.

Halting his movement, Khal sharpened his ears instantly, but no matter how carefully did he listen, what he could only hear was sheer silence.

Yes, only sheer silence and nothing more.

Not even the slightest sound could be heard, which made Khal frown deeply almost immediately.

"Isn't this a bit... too silent?", thought Khal suspiciously.