Cultivation Through Artifacts

The ground shook like crazy once the Rock Golem took a step to the side, however, this didn't stop Liza from advancing forward.

"Here I come!"

With a strong push against the ground below her feet, Liza crossed the distance between her and the creature in an almost split second, and waved her hand.

"Jade Lock!"

Swish!

Directly after she said that, the Rock Golem's feet got frozen and stuck on the ground, sealing its movements away just like that.

"Die!"

Swish!

Several crimson arcs appeared in the air the moment Liza swung her hand, slicing the mountain-sized Rock Golem into several pieces almost in an instant!

However, the very next second as the creature's body was sliced into hundreds of pieces, the sliced parts moved and connected back to each other, almost like they were pulled to each other with a strange power.

'I was just curious to see if I were lucky enough to slice its Rock Heart with one try, but alas...' Liza sighed inwardly and moved.

With a single wave of her hand, a gorgeous sword made out of her Jade Ice, its tip covered in crimson flames.

Moving around the creature with quick steps, Liza waved her sword, sending crimson flames at the Rock Golem from time to time, trying to see how it will react and behave instead of trying to slice it up blindly like the previous time.

Khal seeing this nodded with satisfaction, but his gaze was secretly taking glances from time to time toward a specific direction in the distance.

Watching as the man was still monitoring him since yesterday without rest, Khal couldn't help but frown slightly.

'Even though I said I will ignore him, it's still annoying having someone around me all the time. What should I do?' 

While Khal pondered on this problem with a troubled expression, Liza's moving figure and continuous attacks finally came to an abrupt end, while her mouth curved into a smile.

"So there it is." Liza pushed her feet against the ground which resulted in cracking a little, and appeared at the left side of the Rock Golem in the very next second.

"!?"

The Rock Golem noticed the sudden appearance of its enemy on its left side, which made it more alerted and even tried to move its body, but alas, it was already too late.

With a single swing of his sword, Liza cut off the creature's arm, sending it to fly into the air, and with another few swings, she chopped it into tiny chunks!

Crack!

And exactly as she did that, her sword seemed to slice and break something inside the arm, which instantly caused a chain reaction at the Rock Golem's remaining body that fell onto the ground like a puppet that just lost its strings, rendering it stock-still!

"T-This was indeed easier than I have thought..." Liza mumbled with a shocked voice, hardly believing she just killed a creature at the Peak Fifth Stage with such ease.

If it wouldn't have been for Khal's help, she was pretty sure she would have struggled for days to find its Rock Heart and kill it if not making her give up the mission.

As she thought about this, she shifted her eyes at Khal who stood on the other side of the frozen lava river with a pondering complexion, while Rubie sat on his shoulder calmly.

Feeling the gaze on his skin, Khal raised his head, and seeing as Liza has already killed the Rock Golem couldn't help but smile and ask, "It wasn't that hard, right?"

"Un." Liza nodded and once she consumed the Rock Golems Essence she walked back to Khal and asked, "Even though I got what we have come for, wouldn't it be a waste of our trip and time if we go right back?"

Khal nodded as he too felt like that, and thus smiled before asking, "Then how about this? In the following two hours, let's go and see which of us can kill the most Rock Golems."

"And how will we count our kills?" Liza asked Khal.

Khal nodded as he already thought about this and said, "How about this. Instead of destroying the Rock Golems' core completely, we collect them. That way, we will know how much we killed, avoiding the possibility of cheating."

"Collect them? But how? If we don't destroy their Rock Hearts they will get to regenerate infinitely, so how do you plan to collect them?" Liza looked confused, but Khal's following explanation quickly enlightened her.

"Maybe it will be shared this way, but if you have good timing, you can take its Rock Heart out of its body. As for the part of destroying, you just need to pierce your sword into it without breaking it completely, so you don't need to fear that they will regenerate again."

"Making it harder, huh? Well, it sounds great, so I'm in! Though, the loser has to pay for the dinner tonight!" Liza smiled and without waiting for Khal to say anything, she turned around and burst into the distance, starting her hunt right away.

Khal seeing this shook his head helplessly, and after telling Rubie to follow her, he too started to look for Rock Golems.

However, because he knew if he took this challenge seriously Liza would stand no chance, thus he decided not to use neither of his Talents, only his Devil Fangs and his improved physical strength.

And exactly about three minutes of him starting his search he indeed found a Rock Golem in the distance, which was seemingly walking aimlessly on the land.

'...'

Khal, who stood about a hundred meters away from the seemingly moving mountain, looked nonchalant, his gaze inspecting the Rock Golem in the hope to see where its Rock Heart could be.

And it wasn't long before his eyes glued to the creature's right leg before he threw his weapon that pierced the lower part of the Rock Golem's leg.

"?"

The creature glanced down at its leg as it felt something piercing it, but even before it could have gotten the chance to react, its whole body collapsed onto the ground, while an orange fist-sized orb that was pierced perfectly in its middle appeared among the debris.

"One down, more to go." Khal quickly consumed the Beast Essence and put its pierced Rock Heart away, before proceeding with his hunt.

Time quickly passed, and the promised two hours have ended.

Killing his final Rock Golem and consuming its Essence which increased his units from 3174 to 3547, Khal used his Bloodshed Touch to detect and find Liza.

"It's already time? That was quick." Liza who was just about to find another Rock Golem sighed, and glanced at Khal, "So? How much did you kill?"

Khal smiled and was ready to take out his pile of Rock Hearts, but before he could have done so, the ground not far away from him and Liza split apart and something that was neither lava nor a creature emerged, startling the two.