Birth of the Demonic Sword

'What is it now?' Noah thought as he inspected the hybrid. 'Another organization?'

Noah couldn't help but feel surprised at how hungry every organization in the Immortal Lands was for new members. He had interacted with the human side for no more than a few decades, but he had already received multiple invitations. Almost every force that he met had tried to rope him in.

"You don't belong to the human side," The woman said. "They only want to exploit your strength, but you will never manage to obtain any valuable position with them. They will try their everything to suppress you."

"You can't live with the beasts either," The woman continued. "Those creatures don't have what you need to improve as a cultivator. You can be a king there, but I suspect that you have far more ambitious plans."

Noah listened to her words without revealing any emotion. The woman was right, but she didn't know what Noah's mindset was. He liked his current freedom, so joining an organization was out of the question for now.

Still, Noah recognized the value of having powerful allies. Even if they didn't actually help him during battles or challenging situations, he needed them to trade, sell, and purchase items. They could also provide information that he wouldn't be able to obtain otherwise.

"I guess the Legion is where I belong, right?" Noah said while maintaining an expressionless face.

The woman smiled when she heard that question. She didn't mind the vague sarcasm hidden in Noah's voice. She expected him to have a similar reaction.

"You will never have to hide your true nature in the Legion," The hybrid said. "We live in the Outer Lands, where intense tempests of laws shake the sky. Look for us when you grow tired of listening to beings that can't understand you."

The woman then threw a token that Noah grabbed easily. The item was a small piece of wood that had three deep cuts carved on its surface.

"My name is Grace," The hybrid said as she turned to leave. "See you soon."

Grace left without adding any explanation to her invitation. She didn't even describe the Legion, but Noah could understand its most striking feature.

The Legion had to be a force made only of hybrids. Noah had long since guessed that something like that existed, but he didn't expect to meet it so soon.

'The Outer Lands should be outside of the two domains,' Noah thought as he recalled some maps of the Immortal Lands. 'Tempests of laws capable of shaking the sky sounds interesting.'

Noah had learnt about the storms of laws in Shandal's separate dimension. He knew that they existed in the Immortal Lands, but he had yet to meet them.

'Maybe those storms appear where the higher plane has yet to stabilize,' Noah concluded before moving his attention to the token.

The rectangular piece of yellowish wood appeared utterly ordinary, but the marks on its surface gave the item a peculiar aura. Intense aggression came out of those cuts, but a peaceful feeling also lingered under their violent features.

The aura radiated the power of the eighth rank, and it hinted to a being whose existence carried an evident duality. Noah felt sure that humans and magical beasts couldn't create those effects with their attacks. Only a hybrid could wield that type of power.

'Interesting indeed,' Noah thought as he stored the token and sat on the dark-red ground.

His gaze went on the sky and looked past the sea of flames above to land on the white layer that covered the entirety of the Immortal Lands. His black hole rotated faster as countless emotions surged inside his mind.

The Immortal Lands were immense, and Noah had only explored a small fraction of their regions. There was far more to see and study, and the same went for the many organizations that filled those territories.

The secret organization, the Legion, and the various families met in those years were only a part of the Immortal Lands' political environment. Noah had just begun to learn about those forces, but he felt already overwhelmed with information.

When he paired those forces to the vastity of the higher plane, Noah felt eager to explore. He desired to throw himself into every territory and uncover their secrets. It didn't matter if their owners were humans or magical beasts.

He had a lot to explore, but his current level only allowed him to scratch the surface of the higher plane. He could almost go anywhere he wanted, but he couldn't study everything about those lands.

'I want to reach the eighth rank already,' Noah thought as he lay down to stare at the sky for a bit longer.

Noah knew what his next move was. He had to leave the Hellish Landscape and return to Silkpost city to meet Chief Ash. He wanted to look for Divine Demon, and her group was his best chance at finding him.

Yet, he couldn't meet her unprepared, especially after his recent breakthrough. Chief Ash didn't give him a time limit, and Noah planned to assimilate what he had obtained before joining her group.

Noah had reached the liquid stage, but his new level didn't cause any change in the black hole. The dark matter in its insides was slightly denser, but that was it. His fourth center of power and his dantian could only improve through standard methods.

His mind was sturdier than before, and it had benefitted from the growth of his existence. Still, it didn't show any substantial improvement other than its ability to create blueprints for the workshop.

Noah planned to train and polish that process before joining Chief Ash's group. He had tested how useful the workshop was against Lady Lena, so he wanted to bring the technique to its peak.

His body was better off than his other centers of power due to the many valuable nutrients in the Immortal Lands. Anything around Noah contained divine "Breath", so he could quicken its growth steadily.

Great Builder's inheritance and the Evolution Pit had provided him with materials that he wanted to use. His first idea was to improve his companions, but he planned to create new ones since his mind seemed able to handle them.

Another important technique that he wanted to improve was the workshop. Noah had managed to create shadows of spider-likes creatures, but the workshop's true power didn't come from the innate strength carried by the blueprint.

Great Builder had used the oval core to improve the feathered puppet inside the pyramid. That process showed the real use of the workshop. A creature fueled by "Breath" wouldn't have the same frailty as those that only had dark matter.

The frailty of the spiders came from that. They were only a mass of dark matter arrayed together in the shape of a magical beast. They lacked a fuel that could reinforce their bodies and strengthen their overall state.

Noah also had to fix the matter concerning martial arts and spells. He needed to update a few attacks and restore his movement technique to improve his chances to survive.

'I'm looking at fifty years of seclusion,' Noah thought before sending a message to Chief Ash.

He would remain inside the Hellish Landscape to train for a while. Noah wanted to prepare for his meeting with Divine Demon.

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Author's notes: I changed nine thousand years to four thousand in the previous chapter. I swear I knew math before starting this story.