Cultivation Through Artifacts

Chapter 39: Essence Control

With the still activate Talent of his, Khal extended his hand and grabbed the stone on his side.

However, just like in the previous times, the moment he clasped the stone, a strange sensation swept through his whole body, while through the tip of his fingers, he felt as something was sucked out of his body slowly.

Naturally, now at least he knew that something was his Essence from his body.

“Let’s try it.”, thought Khal, and after closing his eyes he concentrated on his body.

“Eh?”

However, the moment he did, an amazing, yet unexpected sight unfolded in his mind.

Unknown if it was because of his Talent or the reason he wanted to look into his body to feel the Essence, but the moment he closed his eyes, what he saw was not darkness, but something else.

He was able to see his body’s interior structure as clear as day. Muscles, bones, and blood flow, he was able to see and detect everything inside his body.

“What is this? My Heaven’s Eyes can do something like this too?”, thought Khal with awe, but before he could have thought about anything else, he noticed something else.

Just like his blood flowing inside his veins, Khal was able to see different ‘flow cycles’, that was shining with a dim blue light throughout his whole body.

It looked and flowed just as gently as a river, while it could be found everywhere inside him. From his toes all the way up to his head, the dim blue river-like substance created a huge and complex system in his body.

And what was even more that Khal noticed as this substance was flowing in one direction, right toward his fingertips, with which he was holding the stone.

“So this must be the Essence. Now then, how can I control it?”, thought Khal and concentrated on his fingertips.

At first, nothing happened when he concentrated on them, but after a small while later, suddenly the amount of Essence grew in the channel, and twice the amount of it flowed out of his body.

“Not like this!”, thought Khal with a frown and stopped concentrating on them hurriedly.

Instantly as he did, the flow slowed down and turned back to its original flow pace again, making Khal to relax slightly.

“Let’s try something else then.”

Immediately, Khal concentrated again, but this time, he did on the Essence flow inside his body and not on his fingertips.

And the moment he did, he felt like a strange connection, which was hard to describe, appeared between him and his Essence. The sensation made him feel that now if he tried, he would be able to control the Essence Flow as freely as he wanted.

Trying out if he was truly able to control the Essence’s Flow inside his fingertips, Khal concentrated on it and made it to shrink.

And instantly as he did, the flow that streamed through his fingertips started to shrink bit by bit.

Just like how he was able to tighten or relax his muscles, Khal was able to control the amount of Essence flowing out from his body.

And after a small, while later, the Essence that seeped out of his fingers became as thin as a hair, making Khal to turn happy instantly.

“This was not hard at all!”, thought Khal with a satisfactory smile.

However, Logan on the side didn’t smile at all but looked at Khal with great shock.

What Khal didn’t know, that controlling one’s Essence was extremely hard. To make the Essence in one’s body to move, one first needed to comprehend where was the Essence itself flowing inside the body.

Every people had a different Essence route, so finding one’s was extremely hard.

Normally, it would be impossible for one to comprehend the Essence’s Flow in the body, not until one had a powerful sight enhancing Talent above the Fifth Cultivation Stage.

Naturally, Logan knew that Khal had a Talent that was associated with his sight, but he also knew that it was just on the First Cultivation Stage.

He wouldn’t have thought that it was that powerful.

The fact alone that Khal was able to control his Essence after trying just only once, showed him that Khal used his Talent to comprehend the route of his Essence Flow inside his body.

“Interesting.”, thought Logan as he looked at Khal with an intriguing smile.

Standing up, Khal opened his eyes and looked at the stone in his hand.

Previously, the stone was as light as a feather, but this time he was able to control its weight as freely as he wanted.

If he wanted, he could make it as heavy as a boulder or as light as the air itself.

“Like this, I should be able to bring all the stones up without a problem.”, thought Khal and without hesitation jumped back into the lake.

*Splash!*

Swimming all the way down to the bottom, Khal grabbed the closest stone to him, and by controlling the Essence inside his body, he raised it up.

Making the stone’s weight to become not too heavy, but neither very light, Khal minimalized the amount of Essence escaping from his body, while he made it possible for him to swim back up to the surface.

“This will do it.”, thought Khal as he felt the stone’s weight in his palm, but not so much that would prevent him from swimming back up.

Instantly, he pushed his legs against the lake bed, and with a few fast motions with his arms, he broke onto the surface.

“One.”, said Khal and dove back down into the lake.

After a second later, he emerged once again, but this time, instead of one, he threw 3 stones ou onto the ground.

Logan, who was lying below the tree’s shadow until now, sat up slowly and looked at Khal’s emerging and vanishing figure in the lake in silence.

Watching as he was bringing up one or several more pieces of stones one after another, Logan started to smile wider and wider, while unknown thoughts emerged in his head.

However, after Khal had brought up the 63rd stone onto the surface, suddenly a familiar voice sounded in his head.

[Warning! ‘Body Essence’ dropped below 10%!]

Breaking the water’s surface after hearing the voice, Khal looked back at the bottom and watched as there were still a few he needed to bring up.

“There are still 39 left under there. I can make it!”, thought Khal after calculating for a small while and swam back down.

After he brought 32 more up, the voice sounded again in his head, but this time as it did, he felt as his body started to become incredibly heavy, making him know that it was on the verge of collapsing.

[Warning! ‘Body Essence’ dropped below 5%!]

[Warning! If ‘Body Essence’ reaches 0%, ‘Exhaustion’ will occur!]

[Warning! If ‘Exhaustion’ occurs, there will be a high possibility for death!]

“7 more. I can do it!”, thought Khal with clenched teeth and dove back down, ignoring his exhausted body and the warnings in his head.

As he brought back up one stone one after another, Logan smiled and thought, “Interesting. Not only did he figure out how to control his Essence after only one try, but he has an abnormally huge amount of Essence in his body. Anyone else would have failed to bring up 100, to begin with, but it seems he will be able to bring all 222 Treasure Stones up.”

And just as he thought, after a small while later, Khal broke the lake’s surface, and after climbing out of the water, he put the remaining last 2 Treasure Stones onto the ground.

“I… I have finally finished!”, said Khal with heavy breaths as he collapsed onto the ground with an exhausted body.

“Who thought that using one’s Essence could make one feel this tired.”, thought Khal calmly as he felt the pain and fatigue all over his body.