Cultivation Through Artifacts

Liza seemed hesitant about her answer, but as she was the one starting this whole challenge, she had no choice but to sigh and nod.

"Yeah... Right..."

Khal smiled once he heard her answer and said, "Then I want you to do me a favor. Don't leave the Academy until I say so."

"...Eh?" Liza became startled, not quite expecting Khal to say what he just did.

After thinking for a while, she seemed hesitant to ask him the reason, but in the end, she couldn't win over her piqued curiosity.

"Why?"

Khal this time turned serious and with words that held hidden gravity, said, "Just do as I say and don't leave this Academy."

When Liza heard and saw just how serious Khal was, she turned silent, not knowing what she should reply that. 

Why did Khal want her to stay inside Moon Academy? Did something happen? That is why he was acting so strange in the past few days? Is he not trusting her enough to tell her what was going on? This kind of hurt her feelings while also making her worried.

"Khal... What hap-"

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"I promise I will tell you everything, but until then please don't ask me anything. I will be fine." Khal interrupted Liza as he clearly understood what she tried to ask and waved his hand.

Liza closed her mouth, but her eyes couldn't hide her ever-growing concern. Now she completely realized that things weren't as simple as she first belived them to be, thus couldn't help but feel anxious.

However, knowing Khal's character, she knew clearly he won't tell her no matter what even if she begged him among tearful eyes. 

Furthermore, considering that he was acting so serious even though he reached the Sixth Cultivation Stage, this only showed the situation was even dire as he wanted her, someone only on the Fifth Cultivation Stage, to stay safe.

And as she thought about this, Liza felt her heart tighten before asking in a low voice, "You promise?"

Khal seeing her worried expression and concern-filled tone of voice, smiled and nodded, "If I can't keep such a simple promise, can I even call myself a man?"

Khal's words however didn't make Liza feel any relief at all, but alas, she could only nod her head in silence.

Khal smiled once again at her, and after glancing at the fragments of Frozen Flames all over the place he nodded and asked, "Anyways, I still have things to do, so I have to go."

"Wait! Won't you take Rubie with you?" Liza stopped Khal immediately, her hand firmly holding onto his sleeves as though she didn't want him to leave.

This surprised her quite a bit, but before she could comprehend why she did behave that way, Khal suddenly grabbed her hand gently and said, "I wish her to be with you as you will be safe with her around you."

However, this only made Liza's delicate brows deepen into a frown, thus Khal just chuckled slightly and quickly added, "Don't misunderstand my words, you are not weak, particularly not with your newfound power, however, with her on your side you won't get into trouble that easily. Also, that's the only way I will be at ease."

Liza seemed confused as she didn't quite understand why she would get into trouble, but considering Khal's secretive behavior it could be said it made sense.

If he was doing something exceptionally dangerous that included powerful experts, then she would become their target too, and thus, it only became understandable why he wanted to keep her safe.

Holding Liza's hand in her palm for a while, Khal let go before walking away without looking back. 

Meanwhile, atop the closest building in the distance, Jane stood on the rooftop with a nonchalant complexion while her eyes flickered with different emotions from time to time, seemingly deep in her own thoughts.

After walking away, Khal decided not to linger around aimlessly and chose to hunt for beasts atop Moon Mountain before returning to the cave through his newly formed secret path to proceed on with his digging.

Time passed rather quickly, and after more than three days later, Khal finally accomplished getting so close to Alde's hideout where every single individual's outline appeared exceedingly apparent.

"Only five guards?" Khal frowned with surprise the moment he noticed that except Alde's sitting figure in the middle, five figures could be seen walking around the place, seemingly patrolling the place.

However, he didn't mind at all that they were so few as it only made his plan work even better. The fewer people he had to deal with, the faster and smoother can he kill Alde and that is only what mattered to him!

'Now then, onto the final step.' thought Khal and sat down before activating his Jade Tombstone.

Whoosh!

In a blink, Moon City's entire image arose in his mind, while his Body Essence began to decrease rapidly almost as if it was water that flowed out of a tap without any obstruction.

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However, thanks to his preparation in the past three days, turning the hunted Beast Essences almost every time into his units of Body Essence that now reach 9786, he could easily inspect the entirety of Moon City for minutes which was perfectly enough time for him to find what he wanted.

And exactly a bit more than a minute later, after inspecting 98% of Moon City akin to a God, Khal found Alde's clone, practicing his sword techniques in an open practice area outside with a bald guy he hasn't seen before.

"So only one, huh? As I thought, he can't just go and produce clones as though breathing, he still has limits," mumbled Khal as he stood up before dusting his silver robe.

As for the possibility that Alde hid another clone of himself somewhere in an unknown place or even worse, in the Ourvi Family, Khal didn't fear at all. He already knew that Alde had to be close to his clones, hence, the only place he could possibly be was on Moon City or Moon Mountain, but because he already checked Moon Mountain several times and found nothing, he was sure only these two Alde existed currently.

Therefore, Khal couldn't help but smile, and close his eyes to take a deep breath. And once he calmed his heartbeat down, he opened his eyelids again, now his eyes holding nothing but ice coldness.