Cultivation Through Artifacts

"78...79...80..."

Khal's voice could be heard inside Blade Mountain, while he himself was doing pushups with a kind of struggled complexion plastered on his face.

He seemed almost like someone who tried to exercise by normal means, but couldn't as someone just dropped an entire mountain on them out of the fun!

"97...98...99... And... 100!"

Right as he made his 100th push-up, Khal's body collapsed onto the ground, while Nova's voice sounded in his head.

[Congratulations! Cultivation Quest, 'do 100 push-ups' has been completed!]

[+1 Physical Strength acquired!]

Swish!

Once Nova's voice fell, Khal felt the muscles inside his body slightly twitch before a pleasantly warm sensation appeared throughout his physique.

'5 minutes... Never in my entire two lives did I feel 5 minutes this hellishly long! Heavens, or was a real struggle!' Khal sighed inwardly as he never thought doing normal push-ups could be such a challenge.

After taking a bit of a rest, Khal stood up before he inspected his body. And to his surprise, the sight that waited for him was shocking!

Previously, his body had a bit less than the average amount of muscles on his body, but this time it wasn't the case at all. Wherever he looked, let it be his arms, legs, or chest, he was able to see them getting better shape as the muscle grew in size!

The change wasn't tremendous, but it was large enough to see the difference between the previous and the current condition.

"Oh?" Khal exclaimed out with interest while his eyes flashed with a mixture of interest and excitement.

After getting used to the slight changes in his body, Khal decided to do another Quest that seemed relatively easy.

/Kill 50 Beasts above the Fourth Cultivation Stage/

• Killed Beasts: 0/50

~Contribution~

• +1 to every Cultivation Trait

Although killing 50 Beasts seem a lot and even impossible under 24 for normal Cultivators, but Khal was no ordinary Cultivator as he had more than enough power to kill 300+ Beasts under that time much less 50.

Thus, Khal stood up and after patting his robe he left Blade Mountain together with the evolved Rubie on his shoulder.

Because it was still daytime and nighttime was still distant, Khal decided to hunt for Beasts in a place where no one dared, in the deepest and most hazardous parts of Shadow Woods!

Sometime later, he reached Shadow Woods, and without thinking about anything else he walked toward the inner parts with wide strides.

And because Shadow Woods was still a place that was filled with hundreds of Cultivators, many there noticed him which caused whispers to appears in the next second.

"Look, he is there! What is he doing here?"

"Dunno, but as I can see the plans to go into the Danger Zone."

"What? Does he want to kill Beasts there? But there..."

"Yeah, I know. But considering his powers, I think he is more than qualified to remain alive in there. He even has a tamed Bea-, huh?"

Suddenly many stopped talking, noticing that on Khal's shoulder a Beast they didn't see before was calmly sitting, its golden eyes scanning them with an indifferent expression almost as if they were negligible before her!

"What the hell is that Beast? I have never seen one such as that!"

"Wait, isn't that..." just as a guy wanted to say that the Beast on Khal's shoulder was Rubie, Khal has long ago vanished among the woods, leaving everyone behind among questions and suspicions.

Khal walked in Shadow Woods in silence and soon he reached the boulder where everything turned pitch black, no light entering the place all!

After scanning his surroundings and watching no Beast lurked around him, Khal nodded and activated his Bloodshed Touch.

Swish!

His sight changed and turned black and white, while several crimson contours arose in his line of sight, each having a different shape and size.

Some moved here and there with slow movements while few just remained motionless, seemingly asleep.

'No Beasts in the proximity?' Khal thought with surprise as the closest Beast to him was at least 500 meters away.

But it's not like that 500 meters couldn't be traveled in an almost instant if he wished to, but he rather decided not to. Shadow Woods, especially its Danger Zone was a place where danger lurked everywhere, and even though he saw Beasts with his Bloodshed Touch, it was only true for 'normal' Beasts.

Plant Beasts were completely another story as their bodies were made out of plants, thus it could be even said that his blood detecting power became useless against them!

That is why, no matter if he had Rubie, three Power Cores to boost his strength, or even if he was on the Sixth Cultivation Stage, he must be cautious with every step he took or death will easily find its way toward him.

"Let's go. You will watch the skies, Rubie. Leave the rest to me." Khal said to Rubie who seemed to understand what he said, thus began to scan the scenery above them, searching for unexpected or hidden enemies.

As for Khal, he activated his Heaven's Eyes with his Bloodshed Touch still active, and watched as everything around him as clear as day! No matter if the sight 5 meters away from him was pure blackness, once his Heaven's Eyes was activated the darkness around him dissipated in a radius of 20 meters!

'So my Heaven's Eyes boundary doubled while even the things inside its area feel slower. Amazing!' Khal couldn't help but smile before entering the deepest part of Shadow Woods together with Rubie.

However, not even after he took 5 steps, suddenly one of the bushes about 15 meters before moved and creature representing a deer emerged. The sole exception however was that the deer's entire body was made out of branches, completely invisible before Khal's Bloodshed Touch!

'Just as I have thought. Plant Beast has no blood thus my blood detection is completely useless on them.' Khal thought without feeling any surprise before summoning his Devil Fangs into his grasp.

However, this time as he wanted to try out something, he didn't channel his Body Essence into the fan but instead activated a Secret Art he never wielded until this very moment!

'Hundred Slice Cage!'

Whoosh!

With a single wave of his weapon after he activated the Secret Art, several wind blades manifested around the Beast that looked at this sight in confusion as they didn't hurt it at all but simply floated around him without the intention to kill it!

Khal upon seeing this just smiled even more and with no further thinking, waved his fan once more time, causing a sight that was similar to a firework show!

Swish!

BAM!

With a huge 'boom', the Beast's body was exploded into thousands of parts while the branches that formed its core were turned and sliced into smaller fragments than dust!

The Plant Beast has been ripped apart and was turned into nothingness in less than a second, giving it no chance at all to cry out with pain!

Seeing the destructive and kind of merciless power of this Secret Art on a real target, Khal nodded, satisfied with the results, and proceeded with his hunt after consuming the Beast Essence.