Cultivation Through Artifacts

Scorching heat, burning sand, and no water. Khal stood in the middle of a vast wasteland filled with nothing but golden-colored sand dunes as far as his eyes could see.

"Okay, first I need to find water and a place where I can stay and think further." thought Khal as he knew that under such a horrible heat he will die in hours if he didn't hurry up.

"Rubie, go check our surroundings," said Khal as he patted Rubie gently, causing her to nod and fly high up into the air.

Under a split second that looked like a crimson flash, Rubie reached the highest point in the sky where she could currently hover and glanced around.

While Khal waited for Rubie to find something, he walked atop the largest sand dune closest to him and looked around too.

But of course, this endeavor of his ended up as a failure as no matter where he tried to look the only thing he saw was sand...

"Screech!" suddenly Rubie's loud cry appeared from above and the next thing Khal felt was Rubie landing on his shoulder while fixing her gaze toward his left.

Because the sun was still high up in the sky, Khal could hardly figure out what direction that was, but if he was right Rubie wanted him to go toward the north.

"Good job," said Khal and without wasting his time began to walk toward the north.

Yes, walk. Running under such an intense heat while also not knowing what danger lurked around him would only lead him to his demise faster.

Also, what was the most important thing for him currently was to save as much of his energy as he possibly could. Let's not forget that besides surviving in this shitty environment he will have to fight against enemies too!

Saving as much energy as he could, was a must!

"Hmph! Unfortunately, he is not that dumb..." Alde who watched the tournament inside his room sneered coldly, his eyes holding disdain as he watched Khal's walking figure.

"What do you think, how much are his chances for survival?" asked Liza a bit worriedly from Nate who sat on her side; currently they were sitting inside the library, both of them staring at Khal on the screen.

However, instead of answering right away, Nate just simply stayed silent while his right hand subconsciously dropped to his pocket.

Before Khal went away he sent him a piece of paper with a message that stated he should only open it once he died. But if somehow he still won and was lucky enough to stay alive, then he didn't have to because whatever he wrote inside it he will do it himself. 

"Let's just hope for the best," replied Nate after a moment of silence and continued to watch the screen without blinking his eyes.

And almost every person in every Academy in the Southern Continent looked and felt the same way. Each and every one of them prayed for the Gods above in silence to help those Cultivators that represented their city.

If a Cultivator died soon it not only meant their death but also the misfortune that will befall on the Academy and the city they represented!

On the other hand, if a Cultivator somehow survived long enough and died in the last few that remained in the end or even won the tournament, then their city and Academy will experience such growth in prosperity and fame that would happen never again!

People in that cities will no longer need to fear being looked down on as they will be the ones looking down on others!

However, some didn't even pray nor looked anxious as they just simply stared at the screen with indifferent gazes as though they didn't care about the outcome at all.

As for why they seemed so unfazed was completely unknown.

"Damn, it's hot..." sighed Khal as he wiped his sweat off his forehead.

So far he walked more than 12 miles yet he saw nothing on the horizon but golden sand, "You sure we need to go there?"

"Screech!" as a reply Rubie cried out loud and nodded her head firmly. It was apparent she was quite sure they went in the right direction.

"I see..." exclaimed Khal with another sigh, however just as he was about to quicken his pace suddenly the ground below him began to shake like crazy!

TREMBLE!!

A tremor akin to a powerful earthquake shook the entire land around Khal, causing the sand below his feet to shift and fell toward the deeper parts bit by bit.

"What... is that?" asked Khal with squinted eyes as he watched a huge sand cloud in the distance approaching them with crazy speed.

"SCREECH!!" suddenly Rubie began to flutter her wings wildly, making Khal realize that whatever was on its way toward them was nothing but bad news.

In a flash, he summoned his Demon Fangs into his grasp while his eyes turned sky blue with a crimson slit in their middle, causing his body to erupt with a powerful presence.

However, this scene caused many to exclaim with shock in an instant as a second ago he didn't have any Cultivation Presence at all!

"Fourth Cultivation Stage?! He reached the Middle Phase of the Fourth Cultivation Stage in a single month? How?" asked Connor with awe in Jas's room.

"Logan told me he killed a Ghost Spider and found its hideout filled with hundreds of Ghost-Spider Eggs. That and with the help of Blade Mountain's special trait his cultivation progressed quite steadily," replied Jas calmly, his eyes never leaving the screen.

"Fourth Cultivation Stage or not, the thing that goes after him will be a tough enemy. Especially in that environment," said Raffin from the side suddenly, causing others next to him to nod in agreement.

And just as he said those, the sand cloud arrived before Khal, and a massive body erupted onto the surface from below, enveloping Khal's figure and his surroundings into darkness instantly.

"Grit Eater!" shouted Khal with shock as he knew just what kind of creature emerged before him.

He could clearly remember from his time back in the library that once he read about a scary Beast that lived in deserts and loved to hunt for prey that was alone.

It was a Beast that represented an enormous worm with a huge and oval-shaped mouth, filled with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. It had numerous basketball-sized eyes on its body so it was capable of seeing anything around it while its end was a sharp tail akin to a scorpion's!

It was could eat anything smaller than a house with a single swallow or even poison any that was bigger than that!

It was a Beast on the Fourth Cultivation Stage that was extremely hard to kill and almost impossible to run away from once it locked its sight on you!

Except if you could fly. Maybe if you were capable of flying then escaping was a possible feat, but not even that was 100% sure.

Khal watched the Beast before him with an indifferent gaze, but his eyes couldn't hide his anxiety. The Beast before him was simply way too huge, ten times as huge as the Ghost Spider back in Shadow Woods!

Finding a way to injure it will be extremely hard let alone killing it! This thing's physique was massively enormous and as he understood from the book its skin was exceptionally tough too!

It was even possible that his Devil Fangs won't be able to penetrate its defense once he gets close to it, resulting in his certain and painful death right away!

However, Khal couldn't think any further as the Grit Eater shrieked toward the sky with a deafening cry akin to a choking zombie and gushed toward him with crazy speed.

Watching as the Beast descended upon him, ready to eat him alive, his feet got enveloped with blue Essence and pushing his feet against the sand he dodged.

But who would have thought that just as he did Rubie on his shoulder moved too and with a crimson flash appeared next to the Beast and swung its claws toward one of its huge eyes!

Swish!

"RAAAUUGGHHH!!!"