Cultivation Through Artifacts

Everyone stared at the pillar of light that pierced the clouds above with widened eyes, their bodies froze into one place from shock.

"What is happening here?" 

Suddenly several figures appeared out of thin air, all of them staring at the Safety Chamber that was filled with white and black glow, almost akin to light and shadow!

Bazz and Chief Rou wanted to turn their heads toward where the voice just came from, but suddenly a powerful shockwave broke forth from the room, causing them to protect themselves instead of talking!

CRACK!

Several deep and wide fissures appeared on the ground while the walls around them seemed to be on the verge of collapse!

"Why didn't the Nullification Arrays activate yet?" Bazz covered his face with his hands as he asked.

"Do you really believe those formations will activate on Essence Bursts?" Chief Rou quickly answered in a calm voice, but deep inside he was shocked and confused just as Bazz was.

As far as he knew, an incident where the Safety Chamber's arrays ceased to function never happened before, especially not when the thing causing all this chaos so far was nothing more but a simple Essence Burst!

Although all the chambers contained only a few complex arrays, all of them possessed a complicated but basic array, the Nullification Array, which should activate on its own when some kind of strong energy, such as an Essence Burst, appears that couldn't be controlled or contained appeared.

However, there was this very low possibility where the array won't activate, and that only happens in one case; when the power that went out of control was so strong that it couldn't be nullified by any normal means any longer!

And it seemed this was exactly the case right now. Whatever happened inside just now, Khal did something that no one has ever done before, resulting in a strong Essence Burst to be created, one that was able to collapse an entire department with ease!

Just thinking about what would happen if instead of an Essence Burst something else would emerge made Chief Rou feel his abdomen turn slightly numb!

TREMBLE!!

"Not good!" Both Chief Rou and Bazz watched as the cracks on the ground and walls spread like spider webs, indicating it was only a matter of time before the entire department collapsed, burying everyone, including them alive below tons of debris!

"Seal!"

However, just as things seemed to turn to the worst and the two men were ready to act in the hope to stop the nearing catastrophe, suddenly a feminine voice appeared from behind them.

Whoosh!

Immediately after that, the room's entrance and its interior were engulfed with blue light that gradually turned solid, trapping the chaotic energy inside at once!

"Miss Scarlett!" 

Both Bazz and Chief Rou turned to look at Scarlett's figure next to Jas, Logan, Raffin, and all the other teachers.

Jas looked at the now sealed room that was crammed with the still turbulent Essence Burst with a serious expression, and without turning his gaze away he asked, "What is happening here? How did this happen?"

Bazz and Chief Rou glanced at each other before quickly taking a deep breath and explaining everything that just happened.

Once they reached the end of their story, everyone around looked shocked, hardly believing that Khal has truly attempted to create Life Essence with only a few months of experience. 

Although they were not professional blacksmiths, they had enough knowledge to know that what Khal did was simply suicide!

Of course, they thought like this because they weren't told about Khal's 'Hidden Talent', so it was only a natural reaction.

"Is he still inside? Is he okay?" Connor asked the two from Jas' side, which at everyone turned silent and stared at Bazz and Chief Rou, waiting for their answer keenly.

"We d-"

"EVERYONE GETAWAY! NOW!" suddenly Scarlett's loud voice echoed in everyone's ears, shocking and confusing many at the same time.

However, because all of them were powerful experts that went through hundreds of life and death situations, they all knew that right now something was certainly amiss and they will definitely die if they won't move right at that instant! Thus without a second thought, they did exactly what they were just told and vanished from their spot.

And in the very moment as they did, Scarlett's power cracked and broke into thousands of fragments while the terrifying power that accumulated inside the room broke out, breaking the department's walls down together with a few buildings in the distance with relative ease!

BOOOM!

TREMBLE!!

Several buildings collapsed into chunks of stone and debris while the ground in several hundreds of meters radius formed fissures that were deeper than a mile for sure!

"T-This..." everyone turned speechless by the level of destruction that just happened.

Even Jas and Logan looked stupified but quickly turned to look at the others on their sides with serious faces and started to talk urgently.

"Quick! Go and search the surrounding area and see if there is any wounded that needs help!"

"Yes!" 

Almost simultaneously all the experts have vanished from their spot in search of injured or those that needed help, while Jas, Logan, Bazz, and Chief Rou remained in one place, staring at the huge crater where the Blacksmithing Department once stood. 

"Cough... Cough... That... That was close..."

While the four were standing in silence as though they waited for something, slowly a figure started to walk out of the smoke in the crater. 

"He is alive? But how?" 

Bazz and everyone else seemed to be at a loss for words, but shortly they became happy as they realized that Khal indeed succeeded in surviving in some miraculous way!

Thus, all of them were ready to go and see if he needed help or not, when suddenly the space not far away from them twisted before a big crack formed in thin air and a man walked through it with a strict and serious complexion.

Everyone, including Khal, stared at the man in confusion, wondering what he wanted or wished to do, but they got their answers rather quickly.

After walking through the space crack the man glanced at Khal, completely ignoring the scenery around him, before slowly shifting his gaze at the cube in Khal's hand that emitted an ancient and powerful aura.

"Impossible... How can this even be possible?" the man murmured in a low voice while his eyes flashed with surprised glint, but soon they turned sharp again and pointed at Khal.

"You! Give that to me, now!"