Cultivation Through Artifacts

"Where is he? Where did he hide? He is definitely here, but where?" high above a flat landscape that was filled with millions of rock pillars as high as skyscrapers, Old Eye's figure flashed from miles to miles with speed akin to teleportation while his eyes never stopped to search for Khal's figure below him even for a second.

"I am pretty sure he took this route, there is no mistake about this. But then where could have gone to?" Old Eye narrowed his eyes as he murmured under his breath, directing his attention at the path from where both he and Khal just came from not a long time ago.

As an existence that lived thousands of years and has seen many things in almost all the Realms except the Sixth Realm, Old Eye's accumulated experience and knowledge was so much that it couldn't be underestimated that easily, especially because he was a True Everlasting with a pure bloodline.

Hence, he knew perfectly well what Khal was currently thinking and hoping to do, including his actual goal of reaching the Realm Path below one of the six Realm Stars, the Star of Beginning.

As he thought about this, Old Eye's gaze turned toward the north and with a seemingly pondering look and without saying a thing gazed at the green star high above the sky in silence.

After thinking for a while, which in reality lasted only for a second, Old Eye lowered his gaze at the landscape below him and said quietly, "No, he is still here. Although that strange technique he used to ambush me has the ability to boost his speed akin to someone from the Third Realm, it also must have a huge side-effect, thus he must be hiding somewhere here to recover his strength."

After he said those words, Old Eye clicked his tongue in annoyance, and with a deep frown, he added, "This is why I hate individuals with presence disguising techniques. They are too much hassle to deal with, particularly when one tries to find them."

Meanwhile, deep inside one of the rock pillar's bottom, Khal lay on the cold ground like a rag, his eyes tightly closed and chest moving up and down rapidly without any signs of slowing down, showing just how exhausted his body currently was feeling.

"Argh... I can barely feel my legs!" Khal murmured with a painful grimace as he looked into the darkness around him, wondering if he had been a mole in one of his past lives for liking running into holes and underground locations whenever he was in imminent danger.

"Sigh... What now?" Khal asked quietly, wondering what he should do next.

Now that he has successfully escaped from that seemingly infinite Special Domain, he was finally free but at the same time trapped again as now he couldn't leave his current spot for who knows just how long. It felt like he just climbed out of a pit only to fall inside another one!

[For the time being, just concentrate on recovering your strength. Although it is very unlikely you will be able to escape his eyes even if you are in perfect shape, it is not a bad thing to rest while you can.]

Hearing Nova's words, Khal nodded and closed his eyes to recover both his strength and lost Body Essence.

'Woah! The density of the essence here is much more abundant here than anywhere else!'

[Naturally. You are inside the Zero Realm, a sacred location where all the Realms connect with one another. It is only natural that the Realm Essence here is greater in quality and quantity than inside anywhere the Second Realm!]

'I see, that makes sense indeed.' Khal nodded and without saying anything else concentrated on consuming the essence around him; of course, he made sure to cultivate with a speed that was not ostentatious, thus avoiding the possibility of being spotted by Old Eye all of a sudden.

Time passed relatively slowly, and after an hour of silent cultivation later, Khal let out a deep sigh and opened his eyes.

'Although I am far from being perfect, I recovered just enough to move my limbs around properly!' Khal thought to himself as he moved his arms and legs around gently before waving his hand and making several rows of text appear right in front of him.

Whoosh!

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/Unknown Art/

? Level: ???

? Description: An unknown but destructive Art born forcefully through several different techniques that were used at the same time despite the success rate being less than 1%!

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'The fuck?' Khal frowned when he read the description of the technique that he used to escape from the Special Domain, feeling slightly lost about what he should think at the moment.

Back in the Special Domain during the moment when he was trapped inside the barrage of wind bullets without any hope for escape, he could remember he bet everything on the line and used all his learned techniques at the same time even knowing that it was very unlikely that they will function together.

As a fact, he even prepared for death and only tried to do that as of a final struggle!

However, who would have known that the very moment he activated all his skills and techniques, instead of failing and causing his body to explode from the inside, a strange power emerged from his bracelet and swept through his body, combining all of his activated techniques into a completely new Art!

Of course, he was not complaining at all as he knew way too well that the reason he was still alive was all thanks to this Unknown Art and not because Old Eye suddenly changed his mind and helped him survive. No, Old Eye wanted to see him dead without question, and exactly because of this why Khal felt immense joy at the moment as he was the one who experienced firsthand just how strong this newly obtained power truly was.

If he should describe it in words, it was heaven-defying, but even then that would be a complete underestimation as those two words alone were not enough to define the real value and potential of the Art in its whole!