Cultivation Through Artifacts

A huge explosion sounded in the middle of the Arena, filling the platform with drifting dust and flying debris. A small crater with a diameter of a three-meter and a depth of a meter was created while in its bottom a guy scorched, cut, and smashed to oblivion lied motionlessly, unknown if he was alive or not; his dagger was shattered into small fragments while his eyes were rolled back into their sockets revealing only the whiteness.

“HA! Take this!”

*BOOM!*

“You are mine!”

*BAM!*

However, even after seeing that, people after people went and tried to beat Khal up as they said they will take care of him, but only found themselves in the exact same shoes as the first guy. Every time they attacked and thought they could surprise Khal from places and angles where he couldn’t react in time, for some strange reason Khal always vanished and appeared behind their backs, pushing or kicking them before the several attacks that should have been meant for him in the first place.

*BOOM!*

“This makes the 16th… Are they really this stupid or did they get blinded by their hatred to this degree?” was what Khal thought as he kicked another guy before a barrage of attacks after getting behind him as effortlessly as touching one’s cheeks.

So far, he did nothing but use his Secret Art’s Second Form to deflect attacks and get behind the enemy’s backs that tried to get close to him.

His Dance of The Celestial Serpent Second Form, the Azure Snake Dance was something that he first found strange, could be even said it was bizarre and didn’t know how to use it. But now that he finally used it, everything made so much sense that even he was shocked beyond speechlessness.

The Second Form was a half Agility and half Defense type form and to tell the truth it was quite complicated too. When Khal first tried and used it back in Blade Mountain he couldn’t even utilize it normally, though after Logan enlightened him after their sparring session he could finally wield it without a problem.

Its base concept was to circulate the Essence inside the entirety of the legs and arms while thickening the Essence around the palms to form a layer of protection field that could be used for both fighting and defending. It was written in the scroll that if one could thicken it to a given, degree defending against stronger attacks from higher Stage Cultivators wouldn’t pose a problem at all.

Of course, Khal could thicken it to an extent to fend against Second Stage attacks or at least deflect them, but even he himself was unable to deflect all the attacks from the hundreds of Cultivators, especially not from those on the Third and Fourth Cultivation Stage. He could only do so because he had his Diamond Skin obtained from the Beast Core; with its help of it where he made his palm turn as hard as diamond and with the help of his Second Form defending against these kinds of unsophisticated attacks shouldn’t pose a problem!

However, the biggest amazement that gave Khal wasn’t only that but the Agility part too. While he could defend against the onslaughts thanks to his Diamond Skin, his Heaven’s Eyes, and his Essence around his palm, he could also avoid surprise attacks from others with his Second Form.

As he said, the Azure Snake Dance was half an Agility and half Defense type form; maybe it was not as fast as the Crimson Snake Dance but it also had a kind of ‘explosive’ speed that could be used for a split second. If he accelerated the Essence Flow inside his body, in exchange to weaken the layer around his palm, Khal could become so fast that he could travel 5 meters in a flash! And what’s more, he could get from one point to another without any warning or sign, just like a phantom! However, as a result, both of his legs would become exhausted in no time at all if he used this power too much.

To put it simply, the Azure Snake Dance was a Defense-type form first and only an Agility-type next, not vice versa.

Luckily, after using it for the 16th time, except for a slight numbness Khal didn’t feel anything at all so using it for a bit more wouldn’t pose difficulty for him; it seemed running close to 13 hours straight with his First Form wasn’t in vain.

“I should end this fast.” thought Khal and his gaze titled toward several figured in the distance, “Especially because of them.”

Not far away from him, out of the hundred Cultivators that came to attack him, 3 remained motionless on the side, examining him from there with curious gazes; each having the presence of a Fourth Stage Cultivator!

Each looked extremely imposing and only a fool would believe that the reason why they didn’t attack was that they were frightened. It was rather obvious they waited because they wanted to fight Khal only after the remaining Cultivators were taken care of.

“Hmm… Waiting until I get tired and show you my weakest shape and only then attacking… It seems not everyone a fool here.” thought Khal as a grin emerged on his face and smacked a guy in the face, sending him flying a meter away to the side.

“This… What kind of Secret Art is he using? And how can he deflect and avoided so many attacks at the same time?” asked out loud Nate as he watched Khal on the platform. Let alone struggling and getting surpassed by the Cultivators, he even dominated the entire battle from start until this point. If someone told him that a Cultivator merely on the Second Cultivation Stage could keep his stance against close to a hundred enemies without getting hurt he would laugh that person right in the face! Yet, right now, the thing he would think of as a joke happened right before his very eyes and he was not imagining thing! It was truly happening and Khal really smacked, kicked, and hit others to the sides like they were nothing but mere clowns!

Even Liza’s face showed awe, unknown how she should react to this scene. But it wasn’t only them who looked at this sight with such stupified expressions but everyone else in the Arena too, especially Jane and Alde! 

One looked at the sight before her with complex emotions flashing in her eyes from time to time while the other’s face terrifyingly changed colors one after another.

“How… Could… This… Be…” with clenched teeth Alde hissed in a terrifyingly low tone of voice as he watched the sight before him with a darkened expression that made one believe the skies above got overshadowed by murky clouds; he was on the verge of screaming up with anger but did everything in his power not to.

The one on the platform was somebody with a Sight Enhancement Talent on the Second Cultivation Stage and right now was attacked with tons of powers from different Cultivators, yet, none of them were able to injure him! Let alone injuring him, they didn’t even touch his clothing! What was this!? Did the world go crazy?!

“So many useless trash!” hissed Alde without the intention to hide his anger, making the guy on his side tremble in fear and shut his mouth as tightly shut as he could; he was scared that even the slightest word from him could make this friend of his erupt like a volcano!

“But at least not all of them are useless at least…” said after a while Alde as he calmed himself down, and glanced at the three on the side who was obviously waiting for Khal to take care of the weaker ones, “With their Cultivation Stage they should handle him quite easily.”

The guy next Alde swallowed down a huge amount of saliva and after wiping his sweat off from his forehead he nodded, “D-don’t worry Young Master! Those three will definitely deal with him, you can rest assured! If not, then this young one here will personally shave his head bald as a reparation!”

“Hmph!” Alde upon hearing this did nothing but snorted and continued to watch Khal moving here and there with flash after flash while beating others to obliviousness with ease.