Cultivation Through Artifacts

Khal glanced at Neo and stayed silent. 

However, exactly because of this, Neo seemed to understand Khal thus sighed and asked, "So it failed..."

"Yeah..." nodded Khal and began to explain the events in detail.

After talking for almost half an hour straight, Khal sighed helplessly, "And this all... His Talent is simply a cheat code and no matter how hard I try to think, I can't come up with a solution to kill him."

'...' Neo stayed silent and gradually his brows lowered into a tight frown, seemingly troubled too as what Khal just told him was truly a problematic situation to solve.

"At first sight, I would say he is unkillable too, but..." raising his gaze at Khal, Neo pondered for a while then said, "If I think about it more, it seems pretty obvious where his original body is."

"Huh? How?" asked Khal, feeling a bit lost.

"You told me when you killed him, he brought numerous Cultivators that were on the Sixth Stage from his family, right? How fast did they arrive at Moon Mountain after his death?"

"About 5 or 10 minutes after he died but I didn't really care about it so I don't know. But why..." started to say Khal, soon realizing something.

"Yes, exactly what you think." nodded Neo and raised a finger, "Alde seems to hide his real body neither in Moon City nor in his Ourvi House cause both of them are far away from Moon Mountain. Except if they used teleportation, they should have reached you a bit more than 20 minutes at full speed."

"Yeah, now that you say it, even with my Secret Art I need at least 20 minutes," mumbled Khal and soon his eyes brightened.

"Then this means..." Khal and glanced at Neo, who smiled and nodded, "That his main body is somewhere in Shadow Woods!"

When Khal heard this he realized that all this time he just talked with a duplicate with Alde while his real self was hiding somewhere deep inside Shadow Woods.

"Then this also shows that his ability has limits as his duplicates can't go far away from his real body. This is good news." 

Neo agreed with Khal and asked, "Do you think you can find him in Shadow Woods?"

"Yeah, now that I know where to search for his real body, I won't have a problem. The only question that remains now is how I will find all his duplicates and kill them at the same time." pondered Khal to himself.

"About that matter, it is quite easy," Neo said to him.

"Huh? How so?" 

"When I was little, I heard gossips from my parents about an extremely powerful Secret Art that can be used only with a Sight Enhancement Talent so with your Talent it will be a perfect match. Rumors said with that Secret Art one could observe anything and everything in a hundred miles!"

"What is the name and Level of this Art?" asked Khal without hesitation with his interest piqued.

"If I can remember right it is called the Creator's Gaze from the Cultivator Level. As far as I know, so far only one person was able to master it and that individual has already reached the Third Realm, so..."

Khal understood what Neo tried to say hence nodded, "I will make sure to search for this Art, thanks."

"Don't even mention, instead tell me, did you find anything how I could get out of here?"

"Well, about that not, but I happened to find something rather interesting."

Then Khal proceeded on telling Neo his 'accidental' encounter with the old lady that was quite intrigued by his bracelet.

Once he reached the end of the story, Khal touched his chin and said with a wondering tone, "She seemed rather familiar with the bracelet as she even asked where I got it, so maybe she can be associated with the old man who gave it to you."

Neo remained silent and after pondering for straight minutes in silence nodded and looked up at Khal, "Maybe you are right. Do you have any clue where she could be now?"

"I don't, but even if I would, I wouldn't even bother to find her. She was way stronger than anyone on the Ninth Stage! I could even consider myself lucky that I am alive!"

Neo seemed to realize Khal was right thus nodded and wanted to say something, but alas, before he could have started his dialogue a voice sounded in the surroundings.

[Recovery completed!]

[Pulling 'Owner' out of 'Soul Prison'!]

And just like that, without any chance for Khal to say a thing Khal was teleported away, leaving Neo all alone once again.

"Sigh... And here we go again..."

-

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Back in Blade Mountain, Khal's figure was gently lying face down on the rigid and cold ground, his body motionless as if he was dead.

After a while, suddenly his fingers began to twitch together with his feet, and soon his eyes tightened before they gradually opened wide.

"That was somewhat fast," mumbled Khal, feeling his body still numb from the week straight of forging.

[As only your mental state and your biological body got exhausted and not your Body Essence, recovery was faster also.]

"I see..." Khal nodded, now completely used to the friendly and calm voice that replaced the monotone and robotic voice inside his head.

"Anyway, I forgot to ask this before but who or what are you?" Khal wanted to ask this question a long time ago and now that he finally had time he asked it.

[I am incapable to answer that question yet.]

"Yet... Then it seems you will be able to once in the future when I provided you enough Body Essence, that's good to hear."

After pondering for a while, Khal's brow raised and asked, "And even though you don't know what you are, do you have a name, nickname, or ID?"

[No, I have none.]

"Then do you want one? Let me give you one!" said Khal and hearing no objection began to think.

As far he knew and saw, every time he feeds his bracelet with Essence its voice would turn more and more feminine, thus he must think about a girlish name.

"How about... Ekko? Like the echo of the sound."

[That would be a terrible choice.]

"Then Jinkal?"

[Even worse.]

"Casey?"

[That is a masculine name.]

"Timbre?"

[I start to feel sorry for you future kids...]

'...' Khal hearing this felt his mouth twitch slightly but swallowed back the words he wanted to say and instead began to ponder more.

Only after several minutes later did he raise a brow and ask, "Then what do you think about Nova? It means 'new and ever-increasing light', just the star!"

[...]

Khal waited in nervous silence, hoping the voice will like it.

And to his great surprise, she indeed liked it!

[From this day on, my name is Nova!]