Cultivation Through Artifacts

"No!" Bane roared loudly and moved to stop Khal's movement, but unfortunately, he was late by a fraction of a second.

And that fraction of a second resulted in hundreds of creature's death...

Swish!

With a flicker of golden, the weapon's blade in Khal's grasp vanished and reappeared before the creatures in the distance almost simultaneously before moving and cutting their bodies into pieces smaller than the size of a finger!

Torn flesh, split organs, and sliced bones flew everywhere, filling the air with the smell of iron and painting the ground with the color of crimson! The once paradise-looking scenery now became the literal landscape of hell, only blood and death discernible wherever one looked!

And in the very center of this pit of hell, only two figures stood before each other, one with a calm and indifferent complexion while the other with a pale face, his body shuddering unwillingly from the emotion of fear!

Those two were naturally Khal and Bane, while the blood of mess and the pile of mincemeat was the rest of the Night Crawlers that a moment ago surrounded the two from all directions!

None of them were spared, not even the one closest to Bane as even he was killed under a blink of an eye without giving him the chance to regret his grave mistake he tried to do, resulting in both his and his comrades' inevitable death!

Bane looked at the sight before him with a dumbstruck face, hardly believing that what he just witnessed currently has indeed happened or not. As for Khal, he just viewed the sight around him with a nonchalant complexion and watched as all of the mincemeat around him began to turn into a yellowish substance, Beast Essence.

The silence that enveloped the whole mountain range was heavy and filled with many emotions such as terror, shock, hatred, and regret! Of course, neither of those emotions were Khal's as he at the moment except for the slight excitement felt nothing in particular. 

"Y-You... Do you even have a single clue what you have done? Don't you know what fear is?" after many minutes of grave silence Bane slowly turned his grim complexion toward Khal, his body no longer trembling and his eyes looked sharper than before.

Hearing his questions, Khal showed a mocking grin and asked, "Fear? Fear from what? If you truly think I will get scared from the likes of you or from the Night Crawlers, then you are gravely mistaken."

Bane silently and examined the human's expression before him, trying to see if he was bluffing or was really saying the truth and actually had no fear toward death.

But no matter how hard he looked at Khal's expression and how much he tried to find any signs of a lie in his words, he found none and it seemed what he just was indeed true; he feared neither of him nor from his race!

Was this deep confidence in himself or foolish arrogance because of his preceding breakthrough?

If it were in the past, Bane would have definitely said that it was the latter, but after witnessing Khal's prowess first-hand a moment ago, he clearly understood he had everything that he needed to back up the words he just said.

As for Khal, he thought nothing special about what he said as he just stated facts and not assumptions!

Despite showing absolute dominance with his previous attack, Khal knew that was only a fraction of his true strength and the things he could do in a true life-and-death battle were much greater than a simple assault with his Moonshadow!

He was pretty confident that even if a thousand creatures attacked him at once, he would emerge as the sole victor without a question!

Naturally, if those thousand creatures were not two whole Stages above him, or else things would become rather tricky for sure.

Pondering for another full minute, Bane looked at the two items in Khal's hand and asked, "Did all of this happen because of him putting a tracking array inside the spatial ring?"

"Oh? So you knew?" Khal asked with an intrigued expression before adding coldly, "So you gave me the ring even after knowing that fool put an array inside? I am amazed by your foolishness, but really!"

Bane clenched his fist in anger and Khal's mocking tone, but quickly calmed down and shook his head, "Although it will sound rather surprising, I didn't. I only realized it when your expression has changed. If I would have realized sooner what that fool was trying to do, I could have stopped all this mess from happening. I failed... miserably."

Khal watched with indifference as Bane's eyes slightly were filled with regret and sighed inwardly.

Although he doesn't want to say this, even if he failed to notice the hidden array in the spatial ring, he would have killed everyone here today, so Bane was blaming himself for no reason. 

Of course, he won't tell him the truth as that would ignite deeper hatred in Bane's heart. 

'Well, not like it would matter something...' Khal thought to himself and without for Bane to raise his guard or react, waved his fan while activating his Flame Lotus technique.

Watching as he was surrounded with dense and blazing crimson flames that represented the petals of a lotus, Bane stared deeply into the human's eyes before him with unsurpassable rage, but with eyes that already accepted his fate.

Swish!

BOOOOM!

A towering pillar of flames broke toward the sky that shook the surroundings in several tens meters in radius upon explosion, painting the black sky with the color of bright crimson!

Khal watched with a calm expression as the old crawler's body was burnt away and after a few seconds later when the pillar of flame dispersed into thin air what remained on his spot was a small pit filled with nothing more but ash and dust!

Gazing at that spot for a while in silence, Khal just shook his head gently before turning his attention at the many floating Beast Essence around him, causing his eyes to lit up from excitement, akin to little stars during the night sky!

'Let's have a feast then!'

And with those words in mind, Khal walked up to the closest essence to him, and extending his hand he began to consume it.

[You have successfully consumed 214 Beast Essence!]