Birth of the Demonic Sword

The layout of the Pyramid had a tight connection with the difficulty of the protections. The harder it was to reach an area, the harsher its defenses would be.

The dark corridor led to the deepest protected room in the first layer, which was on the opposite side of the entrance. The aura that surrounded the place was different, and its torches created an eerie halo with the faint red light radiated by their flames.

According to the Balrow family's reports, the torches' fire would expand once cultivators stepped inside the protected area. It would fill the entire corridor and burn everything. It wouldn't differ between energy and flesh.

Noah was in a pickle there. The reports said that the flames could consume even some weaker items in the middle tier. It wasn't something that gaseous stage cultivators should be able to face.

However, he had the dark matter and a body that surpassed the hybrids. His individuality could also boost his strength. His power could reach levels that gaseous stage cultivators couldn't touch.

That gave him some hope, but the defense featured another difficulty that made the matter even more troublesome. The door at the end of the corridor wasn't open. He couldn't sprint to the flames to seize the resources contained in that area.

Weaker experts from the Balrow family and other cultivators had performed various tests in that corridor. They had tried to defeat the flames, blast the door open from afar, and even attempted to find a secret passage that could lead them toward the valuable items.

Still, nothing seemed to work. The torches were almost indestructible and would continue to generate flames as long as something stood in the corridor. The door was the same since it had similar materials in its structure.

As for alternative paths, the experts had formulated a few theories about that corridor. Most of them believed that the door would open after they seized the items contained in every other protected area of the first layer.

Others thought that the real entrance for that room was in the superior layer, but a few believed that the fire was a trial that tested an existence's endurance.

Noah couldn't enter that room had complicated conditions. He couldn't clear every protected area in the first layer. Also, he didn't think that he could find a secret passage when hordes of experts had failed to locate it.

He could only bet on the fact that the fire wanted to test his endurance.

'I will try only once,' Noah thought as his ambition surged.

Noah sat cross-legged on the floor as his cultivation level rose. He intended to push his power to its limits and activate all his defensive abilities at once.

That was his last chance to obtain something from the Pyramid, and he didn't know when the Balrow family planned to close it to the public. He couldn't hold anything back.

Dark matter filled the black veins in his tissues as his individuality forced his centers of power to grow. Noah's cultivation level crossed the halfway mark of the gaseous stage and neared the peak of the stage.

He couldn't touch the peak, but he could come close to it. His long training sessions had improved the effects of his ambition. Noah could now wield the power of an expert that had already set the foundation for his breakthrough.

Corrosive smoke and dark matter flowed out of his figure and surrounded him in two defensive layers. A fiendish armor soon covered him, but the gasses didn't stop expanding after completing his defensive technique.

Noah unfolded his dark world and contained the corrosive cloud inside it. The technique created a third defensive layer around his armor, and Snore soon formed to help in the task.

The Blood Companion transformed into a statue covered in ice and black rocks as it enveloped his figure. Black flames that radiated a silver halo also spread through the dark world and created another layer of protection.

Noah felt like a turtle hidden in its tough shell when he inspected the defenses around him. He had used everything in his arsenal and had expressed his real power. It was only a matter of endurance now.

Noah used the dark world to move inside the corridor. The fire inside the torches expanded when Snore's statue crossed the invisible dividing line, and an inferno unfolded in the area.

Faint scarlet flames filled the corridor and burned the edges of the dark world. Noah felt the area under his control shrinking as the defense attacked his techniques.

The dark world seemed able to endure the power of the flames for a while. They didn't manage to pierce Noah's domain quickly and could only burn it slowly as they expanded toward him.

Noah didn't bother to keep track of the passage of time. He wouldn't revisit the Pyramid, so he didn't need to accumulate pieces of information that the Balrow family could use.

He would remain there. He would even let the flames burn part of his body to test that theory. If that sacrifice didn't grant him access to the room, he would leave the Pyramid and fly toward the Land of the Fallen.

The flames eventually burned the entirety of the dark world and reached Snore's figure. They pierced the rocky layer and melted the black ice before reducing the Blood Companion to ashes.

Black flames and corrosive smoke unfolded in the area at that point. Snore even reformed as those abilities made Noah gain a few valuable seconds.

The Blood Companion crumbled again, together with the black flames and the deadly smoke. Nothing seemed able to stop the torches' fire, but that gave Noah hope.

Some defenses in the Pyramid would fall under tricks and unique methods. The more impossible they appeared, the more likely it was that they required a secret approach.

Those secret methods risked bringing the cultivators closer to their death, but they were the only available approach for weaker existences. Noah was doing the same. He was trying to use his advantages to find paths among those otherwise uncrossable defenses.

The fire reached the fiendish armors. The layers of corrosive smoke and dark matter slowly burned. Noah eventually found himself without any protection.

His middle tier robe and his skin burned at the same time. Pain filled Noah's mind, but his greed suppressed every other feeling. Noah didn't even care that he was suffering injuries. He only desired more resources.

As his skin burned, the door at the end of the corridor began to move. It slowly opened, and Noah promptly leaped forward to pass through the narrow passage.

His mind threatened to go dark as the flames continued to injure him, but his greed preserved his awareness and forced him to press forward.

At some point, the flames vanished. Noah heard the door slamming on the walls of the corridor behind him. He had crossed the entrance when he was under the effects of his greed.

Noah didn't allow himself to relax just yet. He inspected the room with his mental waves, but he soon noticed that it didn't contain any inscribed item. There weren't even Soul Stones inside it.

The lack of resources didn't mean that Noah didn't find anything interesting in the room. One of its walls featured a narrow staircase that led somewhere not recorded in the map purchased from the Balrow family.

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Author's notes: I wanted to avoid doing it again, but it's 6 am, and I'm too sleepy to focus. I'd rather sleep and write better chapters tomorrow than force myself to remain awake. Sorry for having this messy schedule. I can only promise that I'll try my best to do better.