Cultivation Through Artifacts

Chapter 293 - Bottleneck

Khal swallowed down the golden pills and let them become one with his body.

A warm feeling akin to a hot spring washed over his body, pushing his units of Essence ridiculously toward the unknown peak.

From a mere two hundred units, Khal felt as his essence broke past the five thousand border and continued to increase without any sign of slowing down or halting!

'Hey, Nova... Do you know anyone that has successfully broken into the Tenth Cultivation Stage?'

[Way too many to count. As far as I can see, only your race is oblivious by the fact that not the Ninth Cultivation Stage is the peak in the First Realm.]

[Now I can understand why you humans were considered the weakest among all the races out in the Second Realm and above even though you possess such a unique and special Blessing.]

'Blessing? What is that?' Khal asked with surprise as this was something he never heard nor read about back in his book. The concept of 'Blessing' was new even for him.

[You don't know what is a blessing?]

'I don't...'

[Hmm... Well, if I think about it, it's not a surprise at all as you have yet to reach the Second Realm.]

[As for what they are, Blessings are unique abilities that each race possesses, each Blessing different than the rest. Some can control their bloodlines to create stronger offspring, some can manipulate the elements while some are capable of creating worlds by a simple wish.]

[However, each Blessing has only one type, meaning each race has only the same Blessing. For example, in the Higher Realms, there is a race called the Hell Bringers. They are capable of manipulating others' fear, even summoning their enemies' worst nightmares during a fight if they reached a higher stage in their cultivation!]

'That sounds really scary.' Khal exclaimed his thought with awe and a tinge of fear.

[They are indeed are a scary race to fear from, but luckily their nature is not hostile and they don't seek trouble. As a fact, they are known for their kind personality. They even look at their own Blessings as a curse instead of a weapon that could pull disaster onto others with a single command!]

'I see..." Khal sighed with relief inwardly, but soon frowned and asked, 'But how can that be that our Talents, our Blessings are different from one another?'

Thinking about the fact that each cultivator had its own Talent, but each was different from the rest almost completely, was something Khal didn't understand.

If what Nova said was true, then shouldn't all humans possess the same Talent instead of wielding different abilities? It made no sense at all that only they possessed such a strange but unique Blessing from all races out there, right?

[Yes, you are right. That is why I told you it's such a shame that your race cultivated only until the Ninth Cultivation Stage with such a powerful Blessing instead of the Tenth Cultivation Stage.]

[I am pretty sure if your race would become a top existence if you start to cultivate all the way instead of stopping just before the finish line which in truth is the start of everything!]

'...'

Khal remained silent as he felt his rapidly growing essence in his body slowly slowing down before halting completely as it reached a bottleneck once again.

After a while later he sighed and shook his head, finding humans ridiculously stupid for missing out on such a fate-changing detail, but soon he found a little problem.

'Wait... If we are capable of receiving information from the Second Realm and above, how come we have yet to find out the truth? It shouldn't take a long time for someone in the Second Realm to realize their mistake and inform the rest of us in the First Realm, right?'

[Unfortunately, that is not the case. Each race cultivates its Blessings through different means and methods in their realm.]

[For instance, while you have to kill beasts and consume their essence in this Realm to reach the peak, there is a race that only has to eat to get stronger, such as the Void Eaters.]

'Eat to get physically stronger? What kind of power even is that?' Khal looked baffled by the sudden revelation.

[I hope you now understand what I am talking about. Although other races understood that your race is capable of improving your Blessings by consuming other beings' essence, it doesn't mean they would know about the fact that all of you ascended even before reaching your peak in the First Realm.]

[In truth, even I, a Celestial Being who reached the peak in all Realms, was surprised when I found out this piece of information. Though, now I can completely understand why you were considered as the weakest race among all.]

'I see, then I should inform about this matter everyone as soon as possible.' Khal nodded and closed his eyes, 'But for now... I should concentrate on breaking this invisible wall inside me and reach the Tenth Cultivation Stage.'

Ever since his Body Essence reached another bottleneck, Khal felt this weird feeling inside his body that made him feel that he was extremely close to breaking into the next Cultivation Stage but at the same time millions of light-years away!

It was such an untouchable sensation that made him feel strange but at the same time excited too as if he now succeeds in breaking this bottleneck, he will be the very first cultivator among his race to achieve the impossible!

However, exactly because of this, he was forced to figure out a solution that will help him succeed with this seemingly unachievable task.

Until this moment, Khal had to unlock an exact amount of his Essence Paths while also consuming enough Beast Essence to reach the next Cultivation Stage. But currently, this was not the case at all.

Not only did he unlock all of his Essence Paths in his body that he possibly could, but he also consumed enough Beast Essence!

This meant he has to think about something else, a way that could help him break his bottleneck and enter the Tenth Cultivation Stage.

But what could that possibly be?