Cultivation Through Artifacts

"Anyway, what Cultivation Stage are you on? I hope you don't want to say you are still on the Third Stage!" asked Liza as she locked her gaze with Khal's.

"What? Of course not! In fact, I have already reached the Middle Phase of the Fourth Cultivation Stage!" exclaimed Khal proudly, making Rubie on his shoulder flutter her wings in approval too.

"What? How?" asked Liza, seemingly shocked by what Khal just said.

If anyone told her that they reached the Middle Phase of the Fourth Cultivation Stage from the Low Phase of the Third Cultivation Stage under a single month, then she would laugh out loud for sure.

But seeing Khal's dead serious complexion while also knowing he was not the type of guy who loved joking with things like this so casually, she didn't know how to react.

Even herself, with a Natural Born Talent, was still on the Upper Phase of the Third Cultivation Stage, so what Khal just said was something extremely hard to believe!

"That's... Impossible," exclaimed Liza loudly, her voice carrying a bit of doubt.

"But it is not," said Khal and activated his Heaven's Eyes, making his Cultivation Presence leak out from his body gently, avoiding to scare or attracting unwanted attention from other guests around them.

"This..." Liza was unable to find words she wanted to say as she stared at Khal like a complete freak.

His cultivation speed was everything but not normal! Saying that it was abnormal would be a complete understatement!

"But how?" 

"Well even myself can hardly believe it, but my luck was pretty good in the last month," said Khal as he began to explain to Liza how he, or to be more precise, how Rubie found the Ghost Spider's hideout about 2 weeks ago that gave them a huge boost in their cultivation.

"And also let's not forget that I have Blade Mountain where I can improve my Talent way faster than normal cultivation," said Khal as he got to the end of his story after 10 minutes of straight-talking.

"So that's why she seems so powerful. I found it strange at first but now it is only natural for her to become so strong under such a short span of time."

"Yeah..." smiled Khal as he patted Rubie on her head, "Would you have believed a month ago if I tell you I will have a Tamed Beast in the future?"

"Definitely not. Particularly because it was you who once said you hated Beasts, especially those with wings." 

"Really? Did I say something like that?" asked Khal with a wry smile as he felt Rubie's piercing glare on his skin, "I am quite sure I just joked about that."

"Well, it could be, yeah," said Liza with a smile as she noticed Khal's and Rubie's reaction between each other.

"Sir, Milady, your food." Lily who walked away not long ago appeared next to their table once again, but this time both her hands full with 4 plates.

Placing two plates before Liza and the remaining two before Khal, Lily bowed politely and walked away.

Khal stared at the two types of food before him as he didn't know what to say; in his eyes, both of them seemed masterpieces!

The one on the left was obviously the Thermal-Cooked Dragon Wings with Hellflame Salads. The two pieces of wings on the plates were as big as human feet and looked exceptionally tasty. Their colors were perfectly cooked with a color of gray-brown without any shade of pink or red.

The Hellflames around them looked even greater as they looked exactly like flames! They were dark red and the veins on their surface shone with an even darker red as they emitted a bit of heat at the same time.

On the other hand, the Hundred Flavoured Rabbit Limbs were the complete opposite. While their size was surprisingly the same as that of the Dragon Wings, their color was bright blue in color whilst the plate around it were frozen because of the cold aura it exuded.

"Woah! This looks super delicious!" exclaimed Liza loud, her eyes shining like stars, but immediately realized her mistake so cleared her throat and glanced up at Khal.

However, Khal didn't mind this at all and just smiled as he picked up the flatwares from the table.

"Let's eat."

With that, Khal cut a slice off from the Rabbit Limb and put it into his mouth.

"!?"

However, in a flash, his eyes widened with shock, while his movements halted abruptly.

It was delicious! Not, it was more than that... It was heavenly and even that would not describe how Khal felt!

Right now, there were truly hundreds of flavors in his mouth from salty to sweet and even seasonings that he has never tasted ever before!

Liza seeing Khal's expression didn't hesitate and put a piece of Dragon Wing with Hellflame Salad into her mouth as she began to savor it carefully.

However, her expression was exactly that of Khal's; pure bliss and indescribable shock!

Khal even gave a few slices to Rubie, but even the little bird couldn't stop but show ecstasy upon swallowing the food.

There were no words that could describe how they felt, but even if there were they wouldn't care to say them. They simply are the food, trying to enjoy and savor the flavors as much as they could without saying a single word.

But sometime later, when they were close to the final slices, Liza's movements gradually slowed down and abruptly stopped.

Khal naturally noticed this and stopped too and frowned, "Something the matter?"

Liza who seemed so merry suddenly glanced at Khal with worry in her eyes, causing Khal to frown instantly.

"Khal, I need to tell you something," said Liza suddenly, her arms already lowered.

"I'm listening," said Khal, curious what Liza tried to say.

Liza struggled a bit on how to start her sentence but after seeing Khal seemed confused she sighed and said, "I need to tell you something which I kept as a secret until now."

"A secret?"

"Yes, a secret which I wanted to avoid telling you, but now that you go to that tournament I have no choice but to say it to you."

Khal put down the silverware onto the table and stayed silent. Whatever Liza was about to say seemed to be something extremely serious so he must listen to her with the same gravity too.

Liza waited for a second and only then did she open her mouth, "In the past few months, I'm having the same dreams over and over again. A dream where I got killed."

"What? You get killed? By who?" asked Khal, seemingly confused.

"Yes, but as for by who I don't know. Their faces were all blurry so I can't recall their faces. However, this is not what matters but the event after this."

When Khal heard this he looked surprised as he knew that once one died in their dreams they would wake up no matter what, knowing it was just a simple nightmare.

However, a dream where one continued to sleep even after you were killed... He never heard about something like that.

"After I was killed, I was able to see myself from outside the body and even another 3 corpses next to mine. They seemed strangers but for some strange reason they felt quite close to me."

Khal seemed to be confused, but for some reason deep inside his heart, he felt something was not right here.

"But what happens after this where things get confusing for me. Once I die and see those corpses, the next thing I was able to see was... you as you killed yourself."

"...Eh?"