Cultivation Through Artifacts

"What a sight... Basically, nothing has changed since we were here the last time." 

Once Khal reached the bottom of the hole and glanced around, he saw as the place was the same as when he and Rubie left it behind; broken and fully opened Ghost Spider Eggs all over the place, each having nothing inside them.

'...'

After starting at the sight for a while, Khal activated his Bloodshed Touch and began to look left and right, searching for the direction he can start digging.

"So I should start here, huh?" Khal stared at the several tiny red dots in the distance, quite deep underground, obviously the silhouettes of Alde and his men from the Ourvi Family.

"Let's see just how powerful you are," murmured Khal and once his arm was raised, he activated his Hell Blaze, excited to see what it can do once used properly.

BAM!

In a blink, yellow flames with an almost lining light erupted and manifested around his arm while the surrounding temperature skyrocketed crazily!

The heat that his flames emitted was so hot that the ground in a five-meter radius began to show signs of melting, while outside that range the air visibly vibrated!

However, even under such an immense temperature, Khal noticed with pleasant surprise as his Chameleon Armor did perfectly fine and showed no signs of melting or breaking. Even the temperature inside the armor felt comfortable, almost as if he was inside a slightly hot room filled with air conditioning.

Watching the dancing fire around his arm with a nonchalant gaze, Khal extended his arm and put his palm atop the wall's surface, which, to no one's surprise, melted into a boiling mess right in that very instant!

"Amazing. It's like pushing my hand into water. I can feel almost no resistance at all!" exclaimed Khal with joy and pulled his hand back, "Now the only question that remains is, what will happen if I do... This!"

BOOM!

With a horizontal wave of his hand, Khal summoned an insanely large blaze out of nowhere, melting and erasing the solid rock wall before him into nothingness! What remained in its place was an extremely huge gap, its size extending for hundreds of meters in depth while rocks that melted into jam dripped from the ceiling and walls right on the ground!

'Hmm... Not bad.' thought Khal calmly as he looked at the results, but deep inside he felt pleasantly satisfied.

Although this one single attack cost him a bit more than 50 units of Body Essence, it was destructive enough to demolish anything and anyone on and below his Cultivation Stage just with a single wave of his hand, thus he felt no intention to complain.

This power was truly a frightening one and there was no question about it that in the wrong hands it could cause massive tragedy in entire cities if not in the whole Southern Continent!

But luckily, it was in Khal's possession, someone who didn't wish world domination nor loved to shed blood if he didn't have to.

Sometime later, after taking a deep breath, Khal raised his flame-covered hand and continue to use his Hell Blaze to dig his way closer and closer toward Alde, who was hiding deep underground.

Meanwhile, inside an underground shelter, several miles deep below the earth's surface, Alde was calmly sitting in one place inside an empty room, his eyes gently closed as it seemed he was in deep cultivation.

"Young Master, another individual entered Shadow Woods." 

A man wearing a black robe appeared just before the room where Alde was, his figure kneeling before its door even though Alde was inside.

"Who is it?" Alde asked the man without even opening his eyes.

"I apologize, Young Master, but I have no clue. He was wearing a full set of armor so his face and body were fully hidden."

"Is he approaching the entrance?" 

"No, he is not. He just hunted a few Low-Stage Beasts before he decided to jump inside a hole that leads into a small underground cave system that was previously the home of the Ghost Spider which was killed by Khal."

Alde remained silent for a while and asked, "What do you think he plans to do there?"

The man in the black robe pondered for a while and said, "Considering the amount of Ghost-Spider Eggs that remained there, he maybe wants to collect their shells as they can be sold for quite the amount of money. As for him being a threat to us, Young Master needs to worry not as that place is extremely far away from this shelter while there are also no paths that could lead him toward this direction."

He then said, "I checked that place, so I am absolutely solid what I just said."

"I see..." said Alde and after a while, he just sneered and said, "Then ignore him. He is just a mere loser, you don't need to care about him. However, if he does decide to approach the entrance, notify me right away."

"Yes, Young Master, as you wish." nodded the man, and vanished from his spot.

Though, once he was alone again, Alde opened his eyes and glanced at his palm, which trembled narrowly before he clenched into a tight fist.

"That bastard... Ever since I was 'killed' my ability to create duplicates was reduced to a mere number of one! I need at least two more weeks to replenish my Body Essence completely before I can use my power entirely again."

After taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Alde closed his eyes and continued, "At least I remember that bastard killed me with a strange arrow, so he must be someone who prefers to use a bow or long-range weapons."

And then he continued, "Even though it will be hard for me to find the real one, things like this will become way easier for me to find that asshole! And once I do..."

When the scenery where the guy kneeled before him, begging for his mercy among tearful eyes appeared in his head, Alde couldn't help but grin widely and even start to laugh almost as if he just went crazy.

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Several hours have passed, and even though Khal dug many miles with his Hell Blaze, he was still quite far away from Alde and his hideout, but at least now he was able to discern out his figure among the many that moved here and there.

"Let's call it a day for now," mumbled Khal and walked back to the exit, but before he decided to leave, he made sure to enclose the opening he created with several huge boulders and remaining Ghost Eggs to avoid others finding it by accident. 

"Yeah, this will do it." Khal seemed satisfied by the way he barricaded the path he just created, while also feeling startled at how easily he just moved boulders as huge as cars.

"I should do more Cultivation Quests. Ever since my points increased, my strength also improved by leaps and bounds."

After making sure he really hid the route perfectly, Khal was ready to climb back up to the surface when he suddenly stopped and began to ponder.

Sometime later, he turned to look in the complete opposite direction where he just made his tunnel before waving his flame-covered hand, starting to form a new path.

BOOM!

After half an hour later, he stopped forming the new path that now was a bit more than a mile long, and glanced up.

Above him, about a few hundred meters away from him he noticed several crimson figures, mainly with the shape of a human moving around, seemingly hunting for those Beasts that also shone with bright red color.

"Yeah, this should be enough." Khal nodded and waved his hand, but this time he controlled his flames on purpose to only form a path that was small, but also big enough where he will be able to descend or ascend whenever he wanted to.

And soon, after another thirty minutes later, Khal reached the surface.

After making sure no one was around, he emerged from underground and glanced around quickly to memorize the surroundings before going back down and filling the gap.

After he did, he went back to the cave filled with the remaining of Ghost-Spider Eggs and after barricading the second path too, he climbed back up to the surface before walking back to Moon City as though he did nothing special at all.

"You are finally back. Can you now tell me now where did you just go?"

When Liza noticed Khal's approach, she stopped practicing whatever she did and glanced at him with a slightly raised brow.

However, Khal just simply smiled at Liza's question and glanced at the frozen lake next to her, which now seemed to possess a unique aura he had never seen nor felt before.

"How is your practice? I see you have progressed quite a lot since the start."