Cultivation Through Artifacts

Shadow Woods. One of the many places around Moon City that was considered as a safe zone until one was at least on the First Cultivation Stage.

The sole reason why it was considered a safe area was because of the beasts inhabiting it. Almost 95% of the creatures populating the forest were on the First or Second Cultivation Stage, giving anyone an easy chance to kill weak Beasts and consume their Essence without breaking a sweat. However, because of this reason, Shadow Woods was raided with hundreds of cultivators on a daily basis, so the fight over the creatures and their Essence was insanely intense.

But even knowing this fact, Khal decided to go there and try his luck. Naturally, he hoped for a peaceful hunt without the need to fight others over Beasts' Essence, but if he needed to, he will.

However, this hope of his almost completely vanished when he reached the outer part of Shadow Woods. Right before his eyes, hundreds of people were talking or walking in the forest, while fighting against small beasts.

"I knew it will be occupied, but to think to such extent?" murmured Khal with a bit of helplessness as he looked around.

He could see tons of cultivators alone or in groups almost every hundred meters, filling the forest almost to the absolute brim! The sight was simply crazy and at the same time shocking!

"What should I do? I still have loads of time before dawn... Should I just leave and search in the proximity or try my luck?" as Khal pondered on this question, watched the hundreds of cultivators before him, and shook his head.

"No, first let's check the deeper parts of the forest. Maybe I will have luck and find a few creatures. If not, then I will leave and head towards Moon Mountain right away." with that thought in mind, Khal took his first step forward and started to walk towards the inner part of Shadow Woods.

Passing groups and individuals with steady steps, Khal watched different groups fighting against creatures, while some individuals were consuming the Beast Essence they have earned. There were even a few that was arguing about who should consume the Beast Essence, which was quite a funny, but pitiable sight.

"To fight over a single Beast Essence... Totally useless and just a waste of ones time." sighed Khal and quickened his steps.

However, even after walking in a straight line for close to an hour, Khal was unable to see a single creature in his proximity which was quite confusing. There were no cultivators who came as deep into the forest as he did, so from his point of view, he should have at least seen a few creatures.

But no matter where he looked, he was unable to see a single soul. It seemed he simply walked miles into the forest, just to find nothing. How funny and yet sad!

"Is there really nothing left for me here? Did others came before me and killed the creatures? No, that's definitely not the case." wondered Khal as he halted his steps next to a tree and looked around.

Currently, he walked so deep into the woods that the surroundings around him became exceptionally shady to the point where the path before him was enveloped with great darkness, making the sight before him exceptionally hard to see.

"..."

Khal glanced at the sight that sent shivers down his spine and pondered. Even though Shadow Woods were considered as a safe zone for cultivators to kill weak creatures, there was one single rule that everyone needed to know about this forest.

If you were below the Fifth Cultivation Stage, avoid the darkness at all cost!

Around 90% of Shadow Woods were like any normal forests without any exceptional danger, however, the remaining 10% of it was regarded as an extremely dangerous zone.

Shadow Woods was filled with weak creatures that couldn't even reach the Third Cultivation Stage, giving beginner cultivators the perfect place to hunt. However, things completely changed when one reached the inner part of the forest.

The deeper one dared to go into the woods, the darker the place would become, which meant only one thing.

"Plant Beasts."

Plant Beasts, just as their name suggested, were beasts in the form of plants. Though, they weren't dangerous because they had a physique of a plant, but because they were able to become one with their surroundings and disguise their presence completely.

For example, there was a scary Plant Beast in the eastern parts of the Federation, known as the Bamboo Snake. It was a Beast on the Sixth Cultivation Stage which body was entirely made out of bamboo, letting him be the perfect and most terrified predator of the Bamboo Forests. Just a single bite from it could cause certain death and it was said that it was able to crush massive boulders just with its physical strength alone. Once trapped in its grasp, one could only pray for the Gods above for forgiveness and painless death.

However, even though they were such a frightening species, they had one, extremely huge and obvious weakness. They hated the light, let it be either sunlight or moonlight. And because of this, Plant Beasts lived inside caves, under deep water like at the bottom of the oceans or seas, or like in forests such as Shadow Woods.

And because Shadow Woods' innermost part was so dense that neither sunlight nor moonlight was able to enter, the place was the perfect territory for Plant Beasts to inhabit.

Khal knew all of these thanks to the books he had read in Moon Academy, and that is why he decided to stop right there and then. Continuing his journey forward with his current strength would be nothing more but a foolish suicidal attempt.

"Let's just forget it. Maybe not as easily as I could have been here, but I will definitely be able to find creatures on Moon Mountain too." Khal turned around as he said that and was about to leave, when suddenly noticed something dropped down before his feet.

*Drop... Drop...*

"?"

Watching as drops of red liquid fell before his feet one by one, Khal knitted his brows tightly, but when a gentle breeze holding a sour odor hit his nose, his eyes widened extra wide and moved.

"Sh*t!" without lifting his head up to see what was above him, Khal leaped forward and at the same time activated both his Heaven's Eyes and Devil Fangs.

*BAM!*

And as soon as he did jump forward, a huge explosion broke out where he just stood a moment ago, turning the solid ground into broken debris and smashed soil.

"!?"

Before Khal, a creature representing a gigantic spider almost as big as a house descended from the huge tree above, while from its abdomen thick silk, almost as wide as an adult human was coming out, holding firmly its enormous silhouette from high above.

When Khal saw the creature his pupils shrunk needle-thin, while the emerging sight behind the creature made his complexion to turn ghastly pale in an instant.

"Oh... God..."

On the very top of the tree behind the beast, Khal was able to see several human-sized cobwebs with arms, legs, or heads coming out of them, while dried-up blood flowed out from their interior through the small gaps, falling onto the ground below.

However, if this sight alone wouldn't have been blood-freezing enough, as Khal turned his gaze into the distance, he watched as almost on top of each tree tons of cobwebs appeared one by one, each holding one or more corpses in it. Just thinking about that each of them was holding a single body, which could be either human or beast, made Khal's expression to turn even paler.

"Just how did I not see something so noticeable like that?" thought Khal with bean-sized sweats forming on his forehead.

Although he didn't activate his Heaven's Eyes to see his proximity with greater details, but he made sure to scan his surroundings non-stop, including the sky too. So there was no way in hell that he would have missed something so obvious as this sight, especially not from this close distance.

"Just what is happening here?" squinted his eyes Khal, but the next second his question had been answered.

The very moment the creature noticed that it has missed its target, it raised its massive legs out from the smashed ground it just created and turned its disgusting gaze toward Khal who was still standing in one place. A few seconds later, the spider gave out a hollow cry and moved, but strangely, not in a way that Khal would have anticipated.

"!?"

Instead of attacking him right away, the spider decided to climb back up while its enormous body and the cobwebs around it started to slowly turn transparent, and in the end, vanish from his sight completely.

"Ah? Wait... What? It has disappeared!?" screamed up Khal with great surprise, but the very next second raised his guard and started to scan his surroundings with sharp eyes.

He realized that right now, he was right inside a terrifying Beast's territory, so the slightest mistake could cause the end of his life.