Cultivation Through Artifacts

The man glanced at Khal with eyes filled with disbelief before he slowly lowered his gaze at the sword that was cleanly cut through his chest, piercing his heart with razor-like precision.

"You... Wha-, bleargh!" the man tried to say something, but in the middle of his sentence blood gushed out of his mouth before life went out of his eyes and his body went limp.

Even though he was a Ninth Stage Cultivator, everything happened so fast and suddenly that he was unable to react in time, and was killed by a boy who was two stages below him!

Dying in such a way, the man's last feeling was only regretting as he shouldn't have lowered his guard even though he wished to surround.

"Why did you kill him? He was obviously about to surrender." Logan frowned as he watched Khal pull out his strange sword from the man's chest, painting the surroundings with dark red blood.

It was a well-designed longsword, about 1.5 meters in length. However, what was its most eye-catching trait was not its design or color but the material it was made out of. It looked like it was carved out of ordinary wood, but because of its metallic luster and its half black and half white color, it was definitely not made out of wood for sure, or at least that's what Logan believed.

'...'

Logan frowned even deeper when he noticed that Khal didn't move nor answer him even after several seconds, thus calmly walked next to him and asked, "Hey, are you ok-"

"!?"

Swish!

Without even finishing his sentence, Logan quickly jumped away, and just as he did, the white side of the sword in Khal's grasp exploded with white light destroying the ground a few meters around Khal in a flash!

BOOM!

"What is happening here?" Logan looked shocked as he watched the white light engulf Khal before melting into his body bit by bit.

'What a nice feeling. It's almost as though I am sitting in a hot spring! I feel so refreshed!' Khal thought to himself and closed his eyes to savor the sensation all over his body.

[Lifeforce has been successfully stolen. Your lifespan has increased by 65 years!]

"...Eh?" Khal's eyes snapped open immediately the moment he heard Nova's voice in his head.

'Lifeforce stolen? Lifespan increased by 65?' Khal felt confused as he didn't understand the current happenings, but soon everything was explained by Nova.

[Your Life and Death Sword is capable of stealing others' life force, turning them into yours.]

'Lifeforce stealing? Do you mean until I have this sword and kill people with it, I can have basically an infinite amount of lifespan?' Khal asked Nova with deep shock.

[Yes. But that doesn't mean you will become Immortal as your physical and spiritual body is far from away from it.]

'I know, but still... To think such an absurd power can truly exist... I still can hardly believe that this is what a Power Core will be created from God Essence. This is simply ridiculous!'

While Khal stared at the longsword in his hand with a stupified expression, the dead cultivator's body before his feet gradually began to wither away like a plant under the scorching sun!

In the meantime, Logan watched Khal and the cultivator's withering away body with a complicated gaze before his eyes shifted at the longsword in Khal's hand.

"That sword... Just what kind of weapon is that?"

Logan knew that the longsword in Khal's possession was no ordinary sword, but as he could only guess what could have happened he just sighed and walked next to Khal once again.

This time, Khal however noticed Logan's approach and quickly unsummoned his Life and Death Sword.

"We should head back. Jas is still fighting with Old Lyron." Logan said calmly, acting as though nothing has happened a few moments ago.

Khal quickly nodded and let Logan teleport themselves back to Moon Academy, but the following sight shocked both of them deeply.

In the middle of the huge crater which was formed after the explosion that Khal's accident created, Jas stood calmly next to Lyron's lying body, his chest heaving up and down rapidly as an obvious sign of exhaustion.

"You... are finally back... You can't even imagine just how hard it was for me to keep the barrier up with you gone. " Scarlett sighed with relief once she noticed Logan on her side.

Logan glanced at Scarlett on his side, who seemed to be just as exhausted as Jas. He knew it was no small feat for her to keep her barrier under control under two Ninth Stage Cultivators' rapid attacks, this quickly took out a green pill from his spatial ring and handed it over to her.

"Here, eat this. It will replenish your strength in no time at all."

Scarlett looking at the pill nodded and after thanking Logan for his help she quickly took the pill away before tossing it into her mouth and gulping it down.

"Let's go," Logan said after that, and even before waiting for Khal to respond, he descended into the crater where Jas and Lyron were.

Jas, who still stood motionlessly next to Lyron, noticing as Logan finally came back with Khal perfectly fine looked happy, but soon turned serious again and glanced down at Lyron.

"Even though you are a genius blacksmith, it does not mean you can do whatever you want. Not only did you try to rob one of my students under my watch and in my city, but you even attempted to attack him and force him to give you what originally was not yours. I hope you are ready to bear the consequences of your actions." 

Lyron opened his tightly shut eyelids slightly and tried to say something, but because his jaw was dislocated by Jas, he was unable to let out a single word. The only thing that came out of his mouth was a huge amount of blood and nothing else!

"What is going on here? I only go away for a while and this is what I need to see when I come back? This is unacceptable! Bring me the one who did this or everyone here shall be punished according to the organization's rules!"

A loud voice that sounded akin to thunder sounded from the skies after a small while, causing Khal and everyone else to raise their heads, only to see a man floating in the air with arms crossed before his chest.

'Who is he? Why does he look so familiar to me?' Khal pondered with a slight frown, but it wasn't long before his eyes widened with realization.

'I know! It's Elder Elex, the head of Moon City's Cultivators' Organization!' thought Khal, and watched with a serious expression as Elder Elex slowly descended from the sky, his complexion rather dark and stiff from anger.