Cultivation Through Artifacts

Hours have passed and another day flew away in the blink of an eye.

Changes around the map once again occurred as sections vanished while what remained in their place was only an infinitely deep ocean with a long and wide black bridge crossing it.

Out of 251 participants from the start, under three days Cultivators died at a rapid speed, leaving only 23 left alive!

In mere 3 days, 228 participants died, each one of them dying through different means. Some were eaten alive by huge Beasts, some died because of the harsh environments, and were unable to find a safe section where they could have survived but a bit more than 50% of them died through a battle against other Cultivators.

All in all, only 23 participants remained in the tournament and that was the only thing that mattered.

"Our Flame Academy can finally leave behind the shame we have reaped last decades Thousand Life Tournament! We can finally rise and make everyone know our name once again!"

"Top 25 in the Thousand Life Tournament. I... I can hardly believe this! Jade Academy received such a heaven-given blessing as today!"

"Hmph... This was only natural. Thunderbone City was fated to reach the top and rise just like how we did a hundred years ago!"

Leaders of cities whose Academies were still participating in the tournament were talking out aloud with different emotions; some were happy, some were shocked while there were even those who thought about this as something only natural.

One of the latter individuals was Elder Caz, who stared at Seila's figure on the screen with an indifferent face, unknow what he was currently thinking.

Ever since her fight with Theon and her usage of her strange power, her condition seemed to recover steadily, but her movements were still kind of sluggish and stiff.

Elder Caz understood it was because she used her Mirror Sight to its full potential, but as to that it would come with such a dire consequence he didn't know.

Seila told him that her Mirror Sight had a great and powerful ability that she will use only if she seems to have no other choice, but she never told him it would come with such dire consequences.

"Interior injuries to an unknown degree. Even her Essence Paths could have been damaged because of that..." Elder Caz's angry voice resounded suddenly in the empty room, his gaze holding worry and incite at the same time.

Time flowed slowly and Seila's complexion together with both her physical and mental condition recovered once again; she looked as healthy and ice-cold as ever before without any sign of her injury from her previous fight.

"Huh? Another Cultivator?" inside a section that was filled with burning trees, buildings while the ground and skies were filled with dust, a guy in a dark orange robe emerged behind Seila, seemingly surprised he met someone there.

"..." upon hearing his voice, Seila turned around slowly.

Staring at the guy with a cold gaze that caused the guy to stiffen up, Seila raised her sword and swung it horizontally without hesitation.

Swish!

Despite her swinging her weapon in a gracious manner that seemed slow, a crescent silver arc appeared around the guy's neck in a split second, beheading him on the spot without mercy.

Without looking at the corpse not even for a second, Seila turned around and began to walk away with slow and steady steps.

-

While all that happened, Khal was still struggling in the middle of a black bridge, trying to get finally reach a section once and for all!

He was strolling for more than a day, and he was still unable to reach a section! He could have already reached one about several hours ago, but just as the first previous time that one too vanished into thin air right before his very eyes!

And what was even worse that the next section this time was not 3, but 6 sections away, and ever since then he was walking without rest!

Resisting the powerful storm that tried to push him off the bridge while also stopping occasionally to get a bit of 'rest', Khal's life became a complete hell.

"I shouldn't have chosen this fucking bridge!" cursed Khal inwardly as the end of his robe and his hair fluttered wildly from the strong wind in the air.

Though, completely opposite to him, Rubie seemed extremely delighted, her eyes even showing great comfort inside Khal's robe.

Since she entered Khal's robe she never left and even slept there while ignoring the fact that Khal was struggling not to die!

But obviously, Khal couldn't blame her. She was still on the Third Cultivation Stage and was not strong enough to resist the powerful storm on his shoulder alone. 

Sooner or later her little body would have been blown away, sending her straight into the ocean or far away into the distance without any chance to return.

"Just how far away I am from the next section?" Khal took out his badge carefully and took a glance at it.

However, when he saw the map his face immediately brightened up, and raised his head, "I should be there under a few hours!"

-

Inside Moon Academy, everyone was watching Khal's figure in silence, their faces showing a mixture of emotions.

Some were happy as Khal was able to survive for so long even after meeting Seila, but seemed confused and bored too as he as they couldn't see him fight with either a Cultivator or Beast.

"This is fucking bullish*t! If I knew this I would have asked for the Moon Robe personally! Staying on a fucking bridge and waiting for others to die... Was this some kind of joke? Like this, anyone could reach the top 10 easily! Damn, I could even win the whole thing alone like that!"

"Huh? Did this guy forget to pay his brain bill or what? You dare to say such a thing with your trash Talent and weak Cultivation Base? You would have died a thousand times let alone surviving this far! You would have only brought disgrace onto our Academy!"

"Huh?! You have something to say for me brat? I dare you to say that again!"

People began to talk among each other as some thought Khal was lucky and even a First Stage Cultivator could have done what he was doing, while others stayed silent and praised him deeply.

Anyone that had a bit of brain could see that even though Khal was not fighting with other Cultivators he was still struggling to stay alive on that bridge.

And what's more, he was struggling for more than a day! Anyone with a weak will or without any determination would have died hundreds of times so far!

"Well, at least we can consider ourselves lucky, right?" Scarlett in the Principal's Room talked, seemingly calm as she stared at Khal on the screen.

"Lucky? Haha! I would rather call ourselves blessed!" laughed Raffin on the side loudly, "I checked records and Moon Academy never seemed to reach the top 50 in the Thousand Life Tournament let alone top 25! Let it be luck or pure coincidence, that brat blessed us!"

"He was the right choice to send, no question about it."

Many around Raffin nodded in agreement while only a few didn't. One of them was Jane, who knew that maybe Khal was lucky all this time, he didn't show any great achievements except killing those Grit Eaters.

If this went on and died right away once he met with another Cultivator, let it be either top 25 or top 10, they could earn not even the slightest of merit or credit.

Hell, they could even get others to despise them and call Moon Academy shameless because they sent a Cultivator that only survived because of sheer luck and didn't do a thing.

He only killed 3 enemies so far and all 3 of them were below him in Cultivation Base so he didn't do anything that could deserve him getting any merit at all!