Cultivation Through Artifacts

When Liza saw how slyly did Khal ignore her question and instead asked another one, her delicate mouth seemed to twitch from annoyance, but decided to calm down.

Whatever Khal was hiding from her, she knew he will tell hell sooner or later, and if it was up to her, it will be definitely sooner.

'So you play like that, huh? Okay, let me just see how long you can remain silent.'

Liza turned to look at Khal, and pointed her slender index finger at him with a cunning smile already plastered on her face.

"I will challenge you! If I win, you must tell me where you were!"

'...'

Khal stood in one place with a nonchalant gaze, his tranquil eyes staring at Liza like he just didn't hear her.

This immediately caused Liza to frown and ask, "Hello? Did you hear me?"

"Yeah, I did." Khal nodded, but still showed no difference after his reply.

"Then will you answer or what? I just challenged you, you know that, right?" asked Liza, but she couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed by Khal's indifference.

But to her great surprise, Khal merely sighed before waving his hand and say, "I refuse."

"Eh?"

Liza looked stupified, feeling as though she just heard Khal's answer wrong. 

Thus, she slightly lowered her hand and with her right brow raising toward the sky, she asked, "Say that again?"

"I said, I refuse. It would be unfair if we fight, also, I am no longer a student of this academy so I don't need to accept your fight."

At this time, Liza now could feel herself both angered and helpless, while she tried to find the words to say but no matter what she thought about, nothing came out.

She just simply stood there with a scarcely opened mouth, her mixed emotion-filled eyes staring deeply at Khal's figure in the distance.

Meanwhile, Khal could do nothing but smile bitterly.

Why? Because what he just said was true!

He was on the Sixth Cultivation Stage while Liza was only on the Lower Stage of the Fifth Cultivation Stage!

Furthermore, no matter if she had two Talents and that strange ability to imitate his Secret Arts by a glance, now he was no longer the Khal he was in the past. Now, he had four Talents, each strong enough to let him fight with groups of Beasts alone while he also had two Secret Arts, both rather powerful.

Hell, he didn't even use The Dance of The Celestial Serpent's remaining four forms, so his arsenal was even stronger!

Thus, even if Liza would have been on the Sixth Stage, he was pretty sure he would still win without breaking a sweat.

After several minutes of silence, Liza finally moved and raised her hand.

"You are right, it would be indeed unfair if we fight head-on." said and after a slight pause, she pointed at the lake next to her, "Then let's make a deal. If you can break my 'ice' I will do whatever you want, however, if you can't, then you need to tell me why you act so secretive."

Khal glanced at the frozen lake that still had a unique aura to it, and after pondering, he shifted his gaze back at Liza and asked, "And what if I don't want to?"

'...'

Liza immediately turned silent, however, her eyes told clearly what she was thinking, thus Khal just smiled.

'Well, it's not like I won't tell her what I did once I killed that asshole, but telling her now would bring unwanted and unseen problems. However, there is no way I would lose, right? Also, like this, I won myself a free treat, so I would be foolish not to accept it.' Khal mulled over the pros and cons and soon nodded.

"Sure, let's do it."

"Nice. Then you have three attempts."

"Huh? Three? You didn't tell me this." Khal frowned, but Liza just shrugged and said, "Sorry I forgot to tell you."

"I see, then sorry, I changed my mind too," said Khal and turned around to leave.

Liza seeing Khal was about to really leave, her face suddenly changed, and said quickly, "I was just joking! You can have as many attempts as you wish, not like you will have the chance to break my Frozen Flames or whatever."

Khal halted his steps when he heard Liza's urgent voice and couldn't help but smile. As now he knew she was Nancy and she indeed behaved as she did in her past life, he knew exactly what to do to make her change.

"Frozen Flames, huh? You have quite the confidence in your new power I can see that." Khal told in a calm voice as he turned around, his previous smile no longer visible on his face.

"Hmph! You will see it once you try it. I bet you won't be able to crack its surface let alone break it!" said Liza to Khal, her eyes sparkling with indefinite confidence.

She practiced days and night without rest to achive almost perfect control over both of her Talents, and she indeed achieved that. Indeed, maybe it couldn't be called perfect, but it was complete enough for her to make her Talents melt and form an entirely new power that not even she would have dreamed to create if not for her master, Jane.

Her Frozen Flames was a unique ability where her Jade Ice was literally a block of frozen flames, and even though the outer appearance told others it was solid ice, in truth, if one tried to touch them, they would feel no coldness, but immense heat as though they just touched blazing fire!

Furthermore, it not only was exceptionally hot, but it was also extremely durable, so Liza was pretty sure Khal stood no chance to break it even if he used his armor to protect his body from the heat.

'You maybe are on the Sixth Stage and became a Real Cultivator, but that doesn't mean your body became strong too. You will have no chance to break it, this is my win!' laughed Liza inwardly, and watched as Khal approached the frozen lake with a nonchalant look on his face.