Cultivation Through Artifacts

The air shook and the earth trembled as Logan's body vanished and appeared right before Khal. Everything happened so fast that even Logan's afterimage could be seen in the distance, so it was no surprise that Khal had no time to react at all.

"I won." was the only thing Khal was able to hear before a sharp pain entered his chest from the front while his vision turned slightly dark and blurry.

*BAM*

Flying across the sky while an arrow of blood splattered out from his mouth, Khal's figure bounced several times on the ground before coming to a complete halt with a heavy 'thud' sound in the distance.

"Wha... Cough! Cough! What... happened?" Khal who was lying inside a small crater that his body formed after the impact, gazed at the starry sky above him with a perplexed look. He was still unable to understand what just happened to him in the past few seconds.

"You did well, I'm not gonna lie. But the experience of Essence control between the two of us is vast; you simply had no chance to react... Or at least with your current knowledge, no." talking in a deep but clear voice, Logan walked next to Khal's side end extended his arm toward him.

Khal who was still lying on the ground saw the helping offer but simply closed his eyes and sighed, "Just give me a few more seconds. My whole body aches from exhaustion and even if I wanted to it seems I won't be able to get up for a while."

Logan could only nod upon hearing this and sit down too; it was obvious he was also tired, but not because of the continuous fighting but instead that he needed to surpass his Stage all the time. Watching out not to use abilities that surpassed the Second Stage while also battling with Khal, who could be considered a very tough opponent on the same Stage, put a great burden on him. Especially because their sparring session lasted for close to 6 hours straight!

"You said you won because you had better control over your Essence right? How did you achieve such great momentum with the First Form even though you remained on the Second Stage?" asked Khal as he tried to move his limbs, particularly his legs, but found out he was unable to do so; he reached his physical limit and needed to rest.

Logan who watched Khal until this moment in silence closed his eyes and a mild curve formed on the edge of his mouth, "Until this moment you only circulated your Essence in your feet while accelerating it until you reached your threshold."

"However, that is a mistake."

"A mistake?" frowned Khal as he peeked to the side with eyes.

"Yes, a mistake. Maybe the Secret Art told you to constantly accelerate the Essence flow inside your body, but that is an error; a mistake from the creator of this Art. In fact, the whole concept of the Secret Art, including all the other 6 forms are full of errors from beginning to end."

"What should that even mean?" 

"Just what I say. It seems whoever created this Secret Art never intended to finish it properly or just simply was lazy enough to write it down; in either way, it formed several unwanted flaws in this almost perfect masterpiece." opened Logan his eyes as he said that and leaned forward while he put his arms on his bent knees, "For example the First Form; Crimson Snake Dance biggest error which was neglected in the scroll was that it wasn't explained that you need to circulate the flow not inside, but outside your feet."

"Outside? What? You can't bring out your Essence from your body, that is just simply impossible." exclaimed Khal as he struggled to sit up slowly; it seems his body finally started to listen to his commands.

"Yes that is true and you can't really bring your Essence out from your body, but there is a way which lets you do something similar to that," said Logan and raised his index finger before his face.

Instantly, a gentle blue light enveloped the tip of his finger and started to move clockwise in a slow-motion; it was as if gentle blue flames gently danced around his fingers.

"How?" asked Khal with a dropped jaw hardly believe what he was seeing.

Because he was so familiar with the Essence inside his body thanks to his Heaven's Eyes, he knew how it looked like and what kind of presence it held; it was a gentle blue light that was akin to flowing flames. And right now, that gentle light that was similar to blue blazes and had a presence akin to life, of an Essence, was gently moving around Logan's finger like a tamed beast.

The sight was both mesmerizing and terrifying!

"As you know, once one comprehended what was an Essence and where it can be found, one will be able to control their own Essence at will inside their own body. But what if I say you can not only control the Essence path but also 'shape' the Essence inside your body?"

"Shape?" as Khal heard that he started to wonder instantly while his curiosity got ignited. He wanted to know what 'shaping your Essence' could truly mean.

"You can not only cause the Essence to flow inside your body, causing it to drift in different paths, but also shrink and expand its size, effecting in different results. It is not hard at all, you just need to do what you did back then."

The word 'back then' referred to when Khal discovered how to bring up the Treasure Stones from the lake with the help of his Essence. At that time, he found out that by shrinking the Essence or expanding it, he could make the stone feel heavier or lighter; but that time it was only an accident and he didn't think about it like directly 'expanding and shrinking' his Essence.

It was a just simple accident.

But now that he saw the blue Essence around Logan's finger he realized that what he did back then as an accident in truth can be done on intention now! He just solely needed to expand his Essence inside his body and let it flow out through his pores to form a layer there; it was nothing special at all.

"I see... So that's how you were able to do it." sighed Khal helplessly as he realized the vast disparity between him and Logan both in combat power and in Essence control; it was as vast as the difference between day and night, a completely another realm.

"Well then, now that I have answered your question, it's time for your punishment." smiled Logan at Khal as he lowered his hand and stood up.

Tilting his gaze up at his teacher and watching his smile that held a mysterious meaning, Khal felt a cold shiver sweep through his body, causing him to unconsciously swallow down a huge amount of his saliva.

Khal's nervous complexion made Logan's smile to turn even wider but the very moment he opened his mouth ready to speak, suddenly his face changed 180 degrees and turned ice-cold with a piercing glare.

"Find a job already or I will kill you!"