Cultivation Through Artifacts

After the phenomenal fight that Khal performed, the news that he defeated close to hundreds of Cultivators all alone, that even had 3 Fourth Stage Cultivators among them, spread in the entirety of Moon Academy like wildfire.

Everyone told others everything about the fight from start to end without missing even the slightest detail, but because some people loved to exaggerate things, Khal’s image, unfortunately, grew bigger and scarier in some Cultivator’s eyes than it should have been.

There were even a few that wanted to go and check Khal out just because of sheer curiosity!

But because no one really knew where Khal had vanished to, there was no choice but to remain patient; sooner or later he needs to fight and if the time comes, they will definitely go and see if the rumors were actually true or not!

But how sad, that none of them actually knew that the next time Khal must fight will be after 9 full months! Until then, he can reject anyone’s challenge anytime he wants; he didn’t even need to fight if he didn’t want to!

And as to where was Khal exactly right now?

Well…

*THUD!*

“!?”

“Here! Forge and refine this piece of metal for me. I want to see your level of proficiency once again so give your best!”

Khal, who was dragged into the Blacksmith Department, located at the east side of Moon Academy, stood motionlessly before Bazz while staring at an extremely huge chunk of steel before him with widened eyes; his eyes were so wide that it was feared his eyes will fall out of their sockets!

The steel was twice as big as the Star Steel he had previously forged; in width, it was as big as a door while in length it was two feet long! Its height even exceeded half a meter! 

Simply put, it was massively enormous!

However, the biggest difference wasn’t its size, but its texture; while the Star Steel was silvery and had colorful dots akin to stars on its surface, this piece of junk was like a piece of wood! Yes, it was almost like wood, cut into a perfect shape similar to a brick. If it weren’t for the fact that its dark brown shade had a bit of shiny hue similar to steels and the metallic sound it gave off the moment Bazz put it onto the huge anvil, Khal would have definitely thought it was a piece of wood.

“I need to refine… This?” asked Khal calmly as he touched the cold surface of the ‘steel’, but his eyes couldn’t hide his awe. To think such a thing could exist surprised him beyond belief, “Well, considering I am in a world where cultivation and creatures exist, this thing was… Expected… I guess?”

But this thought wasn’t the only thing that appeared in his mind, but also a voice that arose the moment he touched the steel.

[Notify! Scanning middle-quality material!]

[New material, ‘Oak Iron’ recorded!]

In that very moment as that sounded in his head, the bracelet on his right wrist slightly vibrated, and slowly but surely the Oak Iron before his eyes turned a bit translucent while revealing several Soul Threads inside it; exactly 3 strings of Soul Threads.

“Eh? So this function actually works even though I can only use my Creation Mode after 6 days?” thought Khal with pleasant surprise as he realized this see-through power was in fact a passive and automatic ability his bracelet had the moment his ‘Artifact Creation’ Status had been unlocked. 

“Exactly,” nodded Bazz at Khal’s question and put his huge palm on top of the Oak Iron, “This piece of iron is in truth a lower quality steel so if you were able to refine that Star Steel into a Galaxy Steel and pull it’s Soul Essence out you will have no problem to do the same with this here.”

“I… fear I will not be able to do it.” sighed Khal deeply after a while, as he tilted his gaze up at Bazz.

“What should that mean. You were able to forge and refine a Star Steel quite easily and now you say you can’t do it once again with this here? Don’t tell me you are that kind of freak who can only perform something once then forgets how to do it again.” 

“No, that is not the case. The problem here is that…”

“That?” raised his right brow Bazz, waiting patently for Khal to finish his sentence.

“The problem is that… I have never forged anything else besides Star Steel.” lied Khal after a pause, hiding the fact that currently, he can’t forge anything even if he wanted to.

Without his Creation Mode, let it be the lowest quality material, right now he would still fail to forge and refine it. Just like as he said before, never in his entire two lives did he touch chunks of metals let alone forge them!

“What? You never forged any material except Star Steel? How?” asked Bazz with shock, with a bit of suspicion flashing in his eyes.

“How? Just as I have said it once, I have never forged before. Even the experience I got how to forge was from the times I was in Moon City and even that time the only thing I learned was how to refine Star Steel. Watching blacksmiths from the side could teach you loads of things.” shrugged Khal with an indifferent face, obviously lying nonsense to Bazz.

“And what about the way you found where the Soul Threads exact position was or the moment you succeeded to hit all the final spots without mistake and pull the material’s Soul Essence out? Accomplishing such a feat without years of practice is, without a doubt, impossible.”

“Maybe Master does not know this, but I have a Sight Enhancing Talent so even though I am unable to see through things, I can detect and find things way easier than others. As for how I was able to hit the final 5 spots… Would Master believe me if I tell I was just simply lucky?”

“…” Bazz stared at Khal in silence for a whole minute and after a while frowned, “And you want me to believe that crap? That you were lucky? The part where you talked about your Talent I can entirely understand and believe. I met once an expert who became an outstanding blacksmith because of his Talent that let him detect and see things 1000 times clearer than others but to say you hit the final 5 points because of sheer luck… Do you think I am a fool or what?”

“No, definitely not.” waved his hand around Khal immediately as he felt the chilling gaze from Bazz and began to hurriedly explain, “No, what I just told Master was the truth. Maybe my Talent helped me a bit too, but what I did was definitely true. If I lie, I shall be punished by a lightning strike from the heavens right this very instant!”

*RUMBLE!!*

“!?”

Khal who looked so determined a second ago suddenly flinched because of the loud sound akin to thunder and shrunk his head subconsciously while tilting his gaze toward the right.

*RUMBLE!*

But to his surprise, it was not thunder but a guy in the distance who was presently forging a piece of bright yellow metal while each of his strikes made the whole place to be filled with a sound similar to thunder.

“…” turning his head back at Bazz, Khal smiled wryly and scratched his neck, “Hehe…”

Bazz on the other hand just simply sighed at this and nodded lightly, “Sure, then we will start learning everything from the very basics so prepare yourself!” 

“Yes, Master!” replied Khal loudly in a flash with a serious complexion, but deep inside his heart, he finally sighed with relief.

“Well then, let’s start with the very basics… With the rules!”