Cultivation Through Artifacts

Khal sat next to the pond without moving, his complexion placid without any type of emotion.

However, the same couldn't be told in his mind. He made his brain work on all cylinders in the past several hours, yet he found nothing at all that could have helped him.

He already unsealed all Essence Paths in his body while also consumed all the Beast Essence he possibly could, thus why he didn't understand what he was missing out on.

He even tried to use pushing his essence against the invisible wall that resided exactly inside the middle of his forehead, but found it with surprise that it was useless.

All of his efforts were for naught.

'This is not right. I know I am right there. I only need a small push but what?' Khal wracked his brain for another hour and soon enough, he found something.

Although the invisible barrier inside his body was not in connection with neither his essence and essence paths, Khal realized that it was, in fact, in connection with his will.

It felt like the invisible barrier was a gate while his will was a miniature version of himself and the clearer his mind together with his will was, the clearer the gate would become while the closer he was able to get to it.

'So that's what I need to do.' Khal immediately emptied his mind, closing out anything unnecessary from his head. He even stopped thinking which was quite a hard process as the human brain can never stop thinking no matter how hard one tried. Maybe one could curtail their thought process to the minimum without being aware of the minuscule amount of thoughts in the back of their head, but completely emptying their brain was extremely hard to the point where it was almost impossible!

However, it seemed this was exactly what Khal needed to do in the hope to reach and break the invisible barrier in his head.

Taking a deep breath, Khal calmed himself down and started to clear his mind from everything bit by bit. He closed off his senses such as hearing, smelling, touch, and feeling, avoiding the slim chance of getting distracted by any of those things.

Right now, he could neither hear his surroundings, feel his skin, and smell the air as he even stopped breathing!

Of course, all of these things wouldn't have been possible without his enhanced traits and steel strong mental strength. Nonetheless, exactly because of all these why Khal was able to reach the invisible barrier inside his head under no time at all before smashing it into bits with his will, sending a powerful burst throughout his brain that shook him to his very core!

BAM!

[Congratulations! You have successfully become a Realm Cultivator!]

[You have consumed enough Beast Essence to Ascend!]

[All of your Power Cores have reached the Tenth Cultivation Stage!]

[All of your Cultivator Traits increased by 3!]

[Your sea of consciousness expanded! Soul World has been formed!]

Swish!

'Wha-what the hell is this? Where am I?' Khal's eyes became huge like saucers as he watched that the blackness in his mind turn white and blue before they began to expand all the way into the infinite while he appeared in the middle of all this all of a sudden!

[Oho? A Soul World? Things start to become even more interesting.]

'A Soul World? What is that?' Khal frowned as he glanced around only to realize that there was nothing around him except the white ground below his feet that was akin to clouds and the azure blue sky above that emitted calmness.

[Well, how should I put it...]

Nova began to ponder before starting to talk.

[Soul World is like a better version of your consciousness. In your Soul World, you will be capable of creating anything, and on the Higher Realms there will be a chance for you to turn it into your own domain!]

'So basically I am a god here?'

[Basically, yes.]

Khal felt stupified and quickly asked, 'And how do I create things?'

[Haha, calm down. Maybe I have said you will be able to build your world in here, it does not mean creating things out of thin air is just a snap of his finger. You need a tremendous amount of energy, which in this case can be your essence.]

[Also, you must have a strong Soul World. Although you have successfully formed your Soul Word, which can be considered a shocking finding as only at the Third Realm can one form their own Soul World, you need to make sure it's strong enough before you start to do anything at all.]

'Strong enough? What do you mean?' Khal asked with a raised brow.

[Just slam your feet against the ground.]

Khal frowned when he heard this, but did as he was told. Raising his feet, he stomped powerfully, but quickly realized it was a big mistake.

Tremble!!!

Like an earthquake during an explosion, Khal felt as though his head was split into two and was immediately pushed out of his Soul World!

"Bleargh!"

Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Khal supported himself on the ground while he watched as his vision became dizzy and everything around him spun like crazy.

It felt like he was on a rollercoaster.

[See? If your Soul World is not strong enough to withstand a simple stomp how do you wish to create anything? Remember, you must reinforce your Soul World no matter what or you can easily die.]

Khal coughed up several amounts of blood before wiping his mouth and raising his head. At the moment his complexion was pale as a sheet of paper while sweat drops with the size of a bean covered his face.

'And... How do I do that?' Khal asked, his voice rather weak.

[There are many ways. Some magical herbs or pills can strengthen your mind together with your Soul World. Many cultivation methods can bolster your mental strength or you can simply do your Cultivation Quests and increase your Cultivator Traits.]

'I see... I will try to do something about it.' Khal nodded and stood up, however, something unexpected happened.

Just as he was about to stand up, Khal suddenly realized that no strength was left in his legs thanks to the previous accident and started to fall toward the side!

'Wha-' Khal widened his eyes when he noticed this fact, but unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about it but watch as his body crashed into the pond, turning his vision all white! 

Splash!