Cultivation Through Artifacts

As time went by slowly, Khal finally began to see a section a distance, making his mood skyrocket in an instant!

"Thank God! I somehow finally made it!" exclaimed Khal merrily right after he stepped onto the section's surface.

Right that instant, the powerful storm vanished, and what replaced it was a pleasantly warm breeze on his face.

The vast ocean changed into a massively huge golden grassland, each strand of grass as tall as a human leg!

Paff...

Falling onto the grass with an exhausted complexion, Khal laid motionless on the ground, his chest heaving up and down with a bit rapid manner.

"..." feeling as Khal stopped moving, Rubie popped her little head out curiously from below his robe and looked around.

"Schreeech!" Rubie's complexion changed in an instant and as though she just got reborn a few moments ago, jumped into the air, and began to fly cheerfully.

It seemed staying in Khal's robe was great, but flying in the air felt even greater for her.

"Sigh..." taking a huge breath and exhaling deeply, Khal put his palm on his knee and pushed himself up.

Raising his eyes and watching the scenery before him, Khal's mind began to relax bit by bit.

Compared to the forest where he hunted for Razor Hounds, this place was way better as it made him feel calmer than usual.

"Let's search for Beasts. I need to replenish my energy somehow."

Khal began to walk among the huge grass that reached all the way up to his waist and began to search for Beasts in the proximity.

And surprisingly, he didn't have to search for too long as only after a bit more than 5 minutes later he spotted the first creature of this section in the distance.

"Swift Mantis and it's on the Fourth Cultivation Stage close to the Middle Phase." thought Khal as he signaled Rubie to survey the proximity until he kills it.

Approaching the Beast from behind that looked exactly like an oversized mantis with a dark yellow color, Khal summoned his Devil Fangs into his grasp.

Once he was closer than 5 meters, Khal channeled a bit of his Essence into his weapon and swung it horizontally.

Swish!

Several silver flicker akin to wind blades broke forth from his fan, and in a split second the Swift Mantis was sliced up into several pieces!

[Notify! 'Heaven's Eyes' has consumed 4 'Artificial Beast Essence'!]

When Khal heard the notification inside his head a slight frown formed on his face, seemingly confused over something.

"4... Why do I only get only below 10 every time I consume these Artificial essences? So far I have never consumed more than 9 which is confusing. " pondered Khal as he knew that a Beast on the Fourth Cultivation Stage could give at least 20 Essence.

Yet, not only was he not able to consume more than 10 but he occasionally obtained only 4 or 5 which was considered bad.

"Maybe it's just my luck..." sighed Khal and proceeded on with his search.

Now that he consumed a bit of Essence his body got recovered to a degree hence he had no problem with killing Beasts as he planned originally.

Swish!

Swish!

Swish!

Using his Devil Fangs to fight with the Swift Mantis' Khal began to consume Essences once again.

However, because not all of the Beasts were as unaware as the first creature was, Khal had to fight a bit more seriously but not to a degree where he had to break a sweat.

With his enormous amount of Body Essence, weapon, and his Secret Art, even if the Swift Mantis' evaded some of his attacks thanks to its nimble movements, in the end, all of them were sliced up.

When Scarlett and the others saw this they became relaxed as it seemed Khal won't struggle to stay alive.

"Well, obviously if he had the strength to kill a group of Grit Eaters all alone then he won't die in the face of some weak Swift Mantis," exclaimed Connor deeply.

"How many participants are still alive?" in a spacious white room filled with several huge screens and buttons, Master Adam was standing behind David with a nonchalant face.

David who was pushing buttons after buttons on the panel turned his head slightly to the side, his eyes still fixed on the screen.

"Since the last restriction, out of the 23 participants, 9 have died, leaving only 14 in game."

Master Adam nodded his head and after a brief moment of pondering he said, "Close the 16 furthest sections, leaving only 7 on the map."

"Huh? But Sir, the time for restriction is yet to come. I ca-" began to say David, but the moment he turned around and glanced at Master Adam he stayed silent.

"Just do as I said. Also, after this, restrict 1 section after every 2 hours while also increasing the Beasts' Stages all the way to the Fifth Cultivation Stage once only one section remained."

"But, Sir! That is..." David was speechless by this and didn't know what he should do.

He was in charge to control the happenings inside the tournament, but Master Adam was the Head outside the Tournament. If he said he should do it, then without complaint he must do it!

However, doing such a thing as that...

It seemed as Master Adam wanted to end the tournament as fast as he could for no reason!

Master Adam naturally understood what David was thinking, hence closed his eyes and began to explain his reason, "I got the order from the Cultivation Organization. It seems 'The Core' began to show minor signs of shutting down, hence we must quicken the events for a bit."

David's complexion changed abruptly upon hearing this news as he didn't expect that to be the reason.

"That is impossible. We made strict checkups before the start of this tournament while also performing several hundreds of tests! That must be some kind of misunderstanding!"

Master Adam nodded and said, "That can be the case indeed, but to avoid unnecessary casualties we must proceed on with this. Of course, we don't need to end the tournament, we just need to accelerate the happenings a bit."

"Furthermore, this is also a great choice for us to make this event a bit more exciting!"

David stared at Master Adam with a calm gaze and only after a moment of silence did he sigh and nod, "As you wish."

Turning back around, David pressed a few buttons on the panel before him and glanced at the screens in the air.

After pressing and selecting several numbers on the screen one after another, David glanced around and looked at Master Adam.

"Should I warn them or no?"

Master Adam thought for a while and shook his head.

"There is no reason for that. It's not like they will have someone in real life who tells them when danger comes. If they end up dying that only meant they were either weak or unlucky. A Cultivator needs none of those two traits!"

"I see..." nodded David and without further ado pressed a sole red button on the left.

-

Back on the huge yellow grass field, Khal was currently beheading a Swift Mantis after avoiding its attacks.

However, just before he could have consumed its Essence, suddenly the ground below his feet began to shake like crazy akin to a powerful earthquake.

"Huh?" looking around to see what was happening, Khal suddenly heard Rubie's loud cry from above, causing him to turn around.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" cursed Khal loudly as he watched the area in the distance vanish into thin air in the shape of blue fragments at a rapid pace!