Cultivation Through Artifacts

Khal was happy to see that Rubie was well and alive. She exceeded all his expectations as he never would have belived she would attack a Cultivator 2 Stages above hers!

This simply showed just how tight his bond with her truly was and just how terrifying she could be just to avenge him.

And this is why he must avoid her rage to break onto the surface like that in the future.

If she lost her cool in real life as she did back in that Digital World against Seila, she will die way faster as other Cultivators won't be as 'weak' as Seila was.

Also, to make it fair, even though Seila was on the Fifth Stage both her power and physical strength were depleted and on the limit thus lasting that long wasn't a surprise, could be said it was the norm.

"Beautiful Beast, what is her name?" as Khal was enjoying the warm sensation of Rubie's feather against his cheek, a calm voice appeared behind him causing him to turn around.

"It's Rubie. By the way, you must be Theon from Skywave Academy, right?" asked Khal in a friendly manner as he recognized the guy, extending his arm toward him.

"Haha, so you can remember me. My honor." smiled Theon as he accepted Khal's handshake.

At the beginning of the tournament, he didn't really put high hopes in Khal as he wouldn't be able to survive long and even die early game, but who would have imagined he wouldn't only make his guess wrong but even finish higher than him!

And what's more, in an exceptionally dominant way!

"I must say, the way you fought, I loved it! Especially your Secret Art when you got behind Seila! That was amazing!"

"Haha, it's quite a great Secret Art, yeah." nodded Khal, feeling the urge to also grin when he saw Theon's smile.

"Though..." however, soon Theon's smile vanished, replaced by a deep frown, and asked, "Your movements felt kind of familiar that is why I came here. Did you learn any Martial Arts in the past?"

"Eh?" surprised to hear this question, Khal shook his head gently and said, "I indeed heard about Martial Arts when I was still a little kid, but I have never learned any Martial technique or skill. Why do you ask it anyway?"

"Hmm... Then I guess it must be your Secret Art indeed." pondered Theon with his gaze on Khal's feet and after a moment of silence asked, "Can you show me your movement skill, please? You would help me a lot and naturally, I will repay your kindness two folds!"

Khal was taken aback by Theon's sudden request and kindness, hence he didn't know how to react for a while.

"S-sure, but you don't need to repay me. I didn't do you anything sp-"

"I must and I will! That is how it goes and how it should be! If I ask for a request from someone then I pay it back two folds! However, if I get humiliated by others I will pay it back ten folds!"

Khal watched as Theon seemed extremely serious about his morals hence just decided to nod and say, "Okay, okay, I understand. Then once I show you, just repay me by telling more about this Martial Arts. You piqued my interest."

When Theon heard this, his eyes brightened up like stars in the sky and nodded his head firmly like a chicken would picking rice from the ground.

"Sure!"

Upon hearing this Khal nodded and shifted his gaze at the crowd behind Theon, "Let's get a bit further, let's not disturb others."

After walking away a bit further with Logan following them from behind in silence, Khal stood before Theon and asked, "You ready?"

"Whenever you are!"

Khal lowered his body and once seemed ready he activated his Second Form and moved.

Swish!

"Woah! It truly has Martial Arts but on a whole different level! It definitely was created by a Martial Artist, no question about it!" Theon's eyes widened with shock as he felt Khal's palm on the side of his neck.

Of course, he could have avoided and countered Khal's assault, but because he wanted to confirm his suspicion he decided to throw his defense away and concentrate on Khal's Secret Art more.

"Exactly as I have thought, your Secret Art uses Martial Arts elements as its basic. What is it called?"

"Dance of The Celestial Serpent, but in truth what I used was only its Second Form," replied Khal as he lowered his hand.

"Wait, what? Second Form? You are already capable of learning Expert Level Secret Arts such this one?" asked Theon, seemingly shocked by Khal's casual statement.

"What? No, of course I can't! Believe it or not, even though this Secret Art has 7 forms it is only on the Moderate Level. Naturally, it is full of errors, thus that is why my Master and I try to correct and modify this Secret Art."

Turning around to face Khal, Theon shook his head and said, "That must be impossible. Any Secret Art that holds Marital elements should be at least on the Expert Level. Something must have gone wrong during its categorization process and I am 100% sure about it!"

"That's what I have thought, but well... it's already in my possession so..." with a shrug, Khal glanced at the screen on one of the pillars and watched the currently ongoing fight.

It was between two guys, one with an Earth element Talent that allowed him to control and form different objects from the ground around him, while the other one had a pure Defense-type Talent akin to a black hole around his palm.

Whatever reached it was sucked into that massive blackness, unknown what happened with it.

"The guy with the Earth Talent will win." suddenly Theon from the side said, causing Khal to look at him with confusion.

"What makes you say that?" 

Theon however instead of giving a reasonable answer shrugged and said, "It's just a hunch?"

"A hunch?" Khal seemed to be even more confused by this and glanced behind Logan, but even he just shrugged at that.

Not even he would dare to say who will win between the two as both were on the same Cultivation Stage and were evenly matched.

Turning his head back to watch the fight on the screen, Khal waited patiently and it wasn't long before the battle was finally coming to an end.

"Here it comes!" thought Khal and watched as the guy with the Defense-type Talent moved, obviously with the plan to suck and demolish the guy with his Talent.

However, just as he could have stepped a meter forward, the ground below his feet vanished and once his body fell into the hole, it was smashed into a bloody mess without mercy.

"!?"

"You were right, it was really that guy who has won," said Khal with a wry smile.

However, Theon just simply shrugged and said, "Well, it was kinda obvious..."

"Obvious, huh?" thought Khal as he would have bet on the guy's victory who just died a few seconds ago.

Just simply because of his Talent, which was able to consume any type of attack in both close and long-range, Khal would have bet his currency on the guy. But who would have guessed that the guy with the Earth Talent had such a high proficient control over his Talent?

But even knowing that the guy was such a pro controlling his Talent, Khal would still pick the other guy as that type of ambush was simply too slow and simple!

Yet, the guy failed to dodge in time as he was way too focused on his enemy without scanning his surroundings, hence his death was only understandable.

He simply died not because the guy with the Earth Talent was strong, but simply because he was the careless one!

"Well, whatever..." sighed Khal inwardly and turned to look at Theon.

"Okay, as promised, tell me more about this Martial Arts you have talked about."