Birth of the Demonic Sword
chapter-1816

Noah had owned many abilities throughout his long life, but most of them had failed to keep up with his improvements. Many had the potential to reach higher levels, but their nature had stopped matching his evolving law along the way.

His current abilities expressed iconic features of his law. The Shadow Domain and the movement techniques used his understanding of space to work. His companions, the workshop, and the dark world came from his creation. The Demonic Deduction technique, the unstable substance, his bloodlust, and the entirety of his offensive relied on his destruction.

His greed had also become part of that list after inheriting Supreme Thief's ability. Having the chance to steal suitable powers had given Noah Isaac and Shandal's law, even if the latter didn't really match his true meaning.

In the end, Noah had his ambition, which could perform miracles and solve situations otherwise doomed. His entire existence and all his abilities could benefit from the main aspect of his law and reach states that made him able to ignore the gaps among the ranks.

Developing better abilities that could express his features was hard at his level since his current techniques were already the result of constant improvements. Yet, Noah didn't need to change the pillars on which he founded his power. He only had to enhance his attacks.

His attacks relied on multiple aspects of his law, so they didn't need changes on their cores to improve. They only required a few modifications to express the new power contained in Noah's centers of power and touch the realms that he had been unable to reach until then.

Noah obviously thought about the final slash learnt in Sword Saint's memories. The two of them had managed to deploy the attack on their own, but that wasn't enough. Noah wanted to own a version of that technique and make it a core part of his offensive.

Noah had other techniques that could have better effects now that his cultivation level was in the last part of the eighth rank. His movement techniques could improve, his workshop could choose to go in a completely different direction compared to Great Builder's teachings, and Supreme Thief's ability also needed something else to become truly effective.

Heaven and Earth's system didn't have many destinations left. Noah could only consider the stormy regions and the cities inside the sky as his goals, which put at least half of his future opponents under the rulers' influence.

Supreme Thief's ability didn't work against Heaven and Earth's laws, at least in its original version. Noah understood why the technique couldn't touch those true meanings, but he believed that his many talents could make him ignore those flaws at some point.

Noah even had another aspect of his battle prowess that had yet to reach the intended level. The cursed sword was still in the middle tier, but his bloodlust could fuse with its structure and make it ready for the breakthrough.

His companions had evolved after gaining energy from the jellyfish, but the cursed sword still needed some time since its breakthroughs depended on the defeated enemies. Noah could still give bloodlust, but he required actual kills to make it advance.

In theory, the weapon would become able to launch attacks that bordered the ninth rank after the breakthrough, and Noah badly needed that. The whole point of a trump card was its power, and the cursed sword was falling behind his other assets now.

It was starting to feel pointless to have a blade that would hurt him without generating effects that the rest of his arsenal lacked. Noah wanted to improve it right away, but the lack of suitable opponents put an end to his research. He had to delay the matter until he stepped into the stormy regions.

The tests and improvements proceeded slowly due to the annoying situation inside the sky, but Noah didn't mind that. His next departure could very well be his last, so he wanted to make sure that his organization had everything under control before leaving.

The new official leadership handled their respective factions well, and the studies about the void were also proceeding quickly. The organization would soon have a team ready to set off and steal sources of energy from Heaven and Earth. Success in the first mission would declare that the underlings were fine on their own.

The packs of magical beasts were a potential threat to the current official leaders due to the upper tier specimens in their ranks. Cultivators and hybrids were generally stronger than those creatures, but the difference in power was quite substantial. They had a chance at taking over the black landmass once Noah and the others left for the stormy regions.

Of course, Noah couldn't take care of everything, but he had taken in the magical beasts, so that was his problem to handle. The landmass was even his creation, and he didn't want to see it crumble right after his departure.

Time inevitably flowed as life on the landmass thrived. King Elbas and Second Prince built separate dimensions meant as breeding grounds where weaker beings could live until they reached the divine ranks. The factions expanded and hosted multiple tournaments among them to reinforce relationships and competitiveness.

The lack of proper enemies reduced the losses to the minimum, and the only crises always involved weak groups of magical beasts going crazy due to their hunger.

The successful mission inside the void eventually happened, and the organization poured all its resources into perfecting that procedure. The experts had a reliable method to gather energy so that immediately became a priority.

Multiple missions into the void followed that initial success. Proper schools that taught different approaches appeared everywhere on the landmass, and maps of the blackness became mainstream in the entire organization.

Noah's force was expanding in fields that no one else had touched, but it was doing that without him. Yet, that was the whole point. The underlings had to learn how to gather energy on their own since he wouldn't be there to find another crazy method.

The passage of time brought the experts with battle prowess near the peak of the eighth rank closer to their departure. They all felt cramped inside the landmass since it couldn't offer them any motivation to get stronger. They didn't even have dangers at hand. Everything was far too peaceful.

The restored flow of energy allowed Noah and King Elbas to expand the landmass even further, and the two eventually decided to create inscriptions that could take care of that task for them.

The underlings would be able to expand the landmass even after their departure with the new set of inscriptions. The process would be slower since the new areas had to rely on the black regions' influence to gain the effects of Noah's ambition and mutations. Still, the lack of better solutions made that method as perfect as it could be.

The turning point eventually arrived. The leaders who had been in seclusion until then didn't talk with each other during their training, but they started to leave their training areas around the same time once they felt ready for the journey. Noah turned out to be the last of them, and he found seven experts waiting for him once he returned to the surface.

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Author's notes: I'm running late again. Meds made me sleepy sadly. The third chapter will arrive soon.