Cultivation Through Artifacts

Despite killing Alde with his Soul Piercer, Khal waited to make sure his assault truly worked or not.

But even after waiting for several minutes in straight silence, Alde's body remained motionless, causing Khal to collect his courage and walk out of the darkness.

With slow steps, Khal scanned his surroundings to get ready for the unexpected but it turned out his fear was only useless; even after he stood next to the dead body, nothing happened with him.

"Did he really die?" Khal seemingly still suspicious about Alde's death, shot a few more arrows into his body just to make sure he really died.

"This should be enough..." mumbled Khal and shifted his gaze at the sliced-up corpse on his other side.

"Let's see if this will be my lucky day or not." crouching down and examining the carcass, Khal began to search the corpse and it wasn't long before his face turned merry behind his armor.

In one of the sliced-up pieces that appeared to be the Blood Centipede's middle part, an orb with a size of a half fist could be seen shining, oozing a powerful presence that seemed way too alluring not to pick up!

"Beast Core! I truly found another Beast Core! Haha, my luck is truly the best today!" Khal exclaimed with joy and picked up the blood-red orb, holding it in the middle of his palm like a priceless treasure.

However, soon his expression turned serious, and shook his head, "I shouldn't consume this yet but wait until I have another free space in my bracelet."

Previously, when he consumed his first Beast Core the voice stated he could have turned it into a Power Core, unlocking hidden potentials of the Beast Core if he had a free slot in his bracelet. 

And because he didn't have he had to consume it without unlocking any secret power, but now he knew about this he decided to wait and put it away into his Spatial Ring.

"Let's get out of here," murmured Khal, but just as he was about to turn around his moments froze, while his expression behind the armor stiffened rock solid.

Alde's corpse he just killed, suddenly began to decompose and rot, and soon turn into dust as if it wasn't there a few moments ago.

"Don't tell me..." climbing up on the wall and running toward with record speed, Khal reached the exit just a second before a suffocating presence broke out not far away from the cave's entrance, halting his movements in a blink!

"Not good!" thought Khal and without hesitation spun around before rushing back into the cave, but now choosing a completely different route.

"Search every crook and cranny and find him! But make sure you don't kill him as I want him alive no matter what!" a familiar voice sounded from behind Khal's back, causing his steps to quicken in an instant.

"That bastard... The one I just killed was his clone too and now he even brought others to find me! I need to hide fast!" Khal began to search for places where he could hide, but no matter how deep he ran there were no gaps in the walls or ceiling where he could stand and use his armor to conceal himself.

If he tried and stood next to the wall he was sure he would be found by those experts behind him that seemed to have a Cultivation Base from the Sixth Cultivation Stage!

It seemed Alde now truly got angered and now utilized his family's power to move several strong experts just to catch him.

Running at max speed, Khal reached an intersection where he could go left or right, but because each of them seemed to be the same he chose the left.

And shortly after as he did, two men in black robes arrived at that same crossroad halting their movements too before each chose to go into one of the tunnels.

"Come out, I know you are here! Let's avoid unnecessary hardships and just come back with me." the guy that chose to go into the left tunnel began to speak calmly, its eyes scanning every corner, trying to see if he could get a glimpse of the unknown person that his Young Master talked about.

However, no matter how far he walked or how hard he tried to find that unknown man, he found no one at all.

"Eh?" arriving into a dead end, the guy halted his steps and looked around. 

Except for the small yellowish crystals that illuminated the area, the guy saw no one thus turned around and began to run back where he just came from.

And exactly as his figure vanished, the wall began to move, revealing a small and tight passage. In fact, the one that moved wasn't even the wall, but Khal's figure that changed his armor's material into the same look as the cave's wall and stood still at the edge of the tiny path, giving an illusion that he was also the part of the wall!

Of course, this was a risky attempt to do because if the guy decided to walk closer to him he would have been busted for sure!

But thanks to his luck, he wasn't and he could finally sigh with relief after a long time.

"That was close, but it would be foolish to think I am safe. I bet they will search the entirety of this cave system and even put watchers outside to prevent my escape... This is really bad news..."

Khal began to ponder what he should do when suddenly he felt someone approach once again thus stepped into the passage once again, even holding his breath back.

"A dead-end?" mumbled the man that seemed to be a bit older than the previous guy, but just as he was about to leave, his eyes suddenly got fixed on the dead-end.

Khal seeing this felt his back be soaked with cold sweat while an urge to run away also appeared in his mind.

But just as he thought he will be busted, the precious guy emerged in the distance and shouted, "What are you doing? I have already checked everything there, so let's go!"

'...' shifting his gaze at the guy that appeared behind him, the man nodded before taking a final glance at the wall and running away with hurried steps.

"That was close... Way too close!" Khal seemed to be more anxious than before, now no longer daring to feel relaxed.

Even though it appeared that no one will come back here again or at least not shortly, Khal knew he must find a way to get out of this place as fast as he could.

"What should I do? The whole place is filled with men searching for me while people will definitely be waiting for me outside." pondered Khal, his brain moving every cogwheel it could just to think for a solution.

Not long after, he did find a solution, but the chance it will work or at least could help him was very slim.

'At least I should try it...' mumbled Khal and closed his eyes.

After calming his breathing and heartbeat down, he opened his eyes and said, "Transform 100 Beast Essence into Body Essence!"

[Notify! You want to transfigure 100 units of 'Beast Essence' into 2000 units of 'Body Essence'?]

"Yes!" 

[Understood!]

[Starting 'Transformation' process!]

Swish!

Immediately as the final sentence appeared inside his head, Khal felt a sharp pain inside his heart, causing his body to fall onto the ground with a slight and painful groan.