Cultivation Through Artifacts

Chapter 50: A Challenger

[Notify! ‘Ember Core’ Devil Fangs obtained!]

As the sentence sounded inside Khal’s head, the strange freezing power that swept through his body suddenly moved and flowed toward his right ear.

“What is happening?” thought Khal with confusion, but the next second his eyes flashed with profound light.

“No! This is not the right time to think about something like this!”

Khal’s mind changed 180 degrees in an instant and pushed his head forward, revealing a determined expression with clenched teeth.

“I need to do something or I will die!” thought Khal and watched as the attack representing death’s scythe approached his neck.

The speed was so great that even Khal was surprised, but knew if he reacted just in the perfect time, he should be able to avoid being killed. However, if he did that, it came with a huge sacrifice.

Because the attack came from his side and flew from above toward his neck, Khal could try and tilt his body to the side just enough to avoid his head being chopped off.

And if he truly succeeds with that plan, what he loses will not be his head but his whole arm instead. Thinking about it, losing an arm over his very own life was way better, no?

“Come!” shouted Khal in his mind as he accepted the consequences of his decision and was ready to move, when suddenly a huge explosion appeared from the side.

*BOOM!*

A black flash that was twice as fast as the attack erupted out of nowhere and crashed into the assault, detonating it far away from Khal like a rocket.

“Logan!” said Khal happily as he saw his teacher was finally wide awake, but before he had the chance to say anything else, Logan’s voice sounded once again.

“Move! Now!” shouted Logan with a serious expression and without waiting for Khal to react, waved his hand.

*BOOM!*

Khal stared at this sight with a dumbfounded expression and watched as the black flames, which looked like they just exploded out from hell’s deepest abyss, flew toward him with insane speed.

“!”

Although surprised, Khal’s reaction was still fast and without hesitation leaped to the side, avoiding Logan’s attack only by a hair’s breadth.

*BOOM!*

“ROOOAAARR!!”

While Khal balanced himself after the jump, what filled the whole forest from the side was a blood-freezing scream, causing Khal’s heart to miss a beat.

“!?”

Turning his head to the side, before Khal a breathtaking, but at the same time, shocking sight emerged, causing his mouth to hang open wide.

A huge beast, representing a mixed breed between a wolf and bear was struggling amongst the woods, while its colossal body was engulfed with Logan’s abyss black flames. It was obvious it was in great pain.

“ROOAAARR!!”

Like raging ancient dragons twisting and turning around a mountain, the raven flames devoured the creature’s body without mercy, slowly turning it into scorched flesh and bone.

Even though the beast’s body was covered with metal-like fur that looked as sharp as the most sharpened blade, before Logan’s flames they seemed nothing.

Like a piece of ice cream during a scorching hot summer, the fur on the creature’s body melted away, and together with the flesh, it turned into ash.

“ROOOAAARR!!”

Howling toward the sky with anger like it was cursing the divine beings above, the creature decided to ignore the raging flames on its body and burst toward Khal.

On the side, Logan just snorted in ridicule by this sight of this and was ready to finish the beast off, when unexpectedly, Khal’s figure moved.

Raising his bare hand before his chest, silver light started to swirl inside his palm gently, causing Logan to halt whatever he tried to do to help.

“What is that?” thought Logan curiously, trying to figure out the mysterious silver light’s origin and power in the middle of Khal’s palm.

However, he couldn’t think for a long time, when an even greater and dumbfounding sight transpired before his eyes.

*Swish!*

Unknown how, but the moment the beast was only a few inches away from Khal, Khal’s arm moved and drew a beautiful curve in the air, cleanly cutting the creature’s head off. The whole thing happened in an instant, so it was hard to see what Khal used.

“What?!”

With dropped jaw and stupified expression, Logan stared at this sight like he just saw a ghost from hell, not knowing how he should react to this.

“But… how?” was the only question Logan could ask from himself after a long time, unknown if what he just saw had truly happened or not.

Maybe Khal didn’t know or realized it, but the creature that attacked him was known as a Razor Hound which could kill any cultivator on the Third Cultivation Stage with a single attack.

One of its special traits was its razor-sharp fur and metal hard skin, which could be used especially for defense, where normal weapons had no chance to harm it no matter what.

Even if his own power somewhat weakened on the beast’s defense, with his current rank, Khal shouldn’t be able to injure the beast. Yet, he not only did injury it, but ended up cutting its entire head off, which was an insanely frightening feat! And to top it off, he did all of this with a power he had never seen before!

“Strange… That power just now, it felt neither his Talent nor any Secret Art I know… Then what was that light just now?”

While troubled to find out the truth behind the silver light, Khal sat down next to the beast’s corpse and after its corpse turned into a yellowish substance, he started to consume it.

“!?”

When Logan saw this sight, he not only looked troubled but speechless too. He just saved Khal’s life and instead of thanking him, what the very first thing Khal did was to consume the Beast Essence that partly he helped to obtain.

“Well, he killed it in the end, so I guess it is fine.” thought Logan with a shrug, not really caring about the fact that Khal started to consume the Beast Essence without his permission.

If Logan wanted to, he could kill hundreds of Third Stage Beasts with a single attack and get their Essence, so losing one now didn’t really matter to him.

“But still, it is strange. Razor Hounds can never be found around this region, so how come this one was here?”

As Logan thought about this with furrowed brows, Khal fibally opened his eyes and stood up.

[Notify! ‘Power Core’ Heaven’s Eyes has consumed 8 Beast Essence!]

The voice in his head made Khal to hum with satisfaction and glance at Logan calmly.

Feeling that Khal has finished consuming the Beast Essence, Logan looked around and said nonchalantly, “It seems this place is no longer safe. We should head back.”

Upon hearing this, Khal knew that things truly did get out of control for a bit, so leaving for the time being should be the best option. With a serious nod, Khal stepped closer to Logan and watched him waved his hand, causing the space around them to twist and shake. And just like that, he found themselves back in Moon Academy.

“For the time being, you can do wh-.” started to talk Logan calmly, when suddenly, a loud voice cut into the middle of his sentence, causing both him and Khal to turn their heads toward the voice.

“Finally found you! This master wants to challenge you for your key’s ownership right now! Your only answer is yes!”

Before the two, a boy who was a full head smaller than Khal stood proudly, with crossed arms before his pushed-out chest. His tiny nose was pointing toward the clear blue sky above, showing his massive amount of arrogance.

He had short black hair pointing upward, giving others an illusion he was taller even though he was not, while his brown eyes showed absurd determination and courage.

Khal seeing the boy before him glanced at Logan, but noticing his teacher’s simple shrug he asked, “And you are?”

However, the moment he asked this, the boy didn’t reply instantly but started to laugh loudly, and just only after causing Khal to look at him with a confused gaze did he point at him and talk.

“My name is Angor Fernax and I will be the one who will crush you, so you better prepare yourself!”