Birth of the Demonic Sword

The underground structure of the region was vast. Noah and Divine Demon could choose different training areas inside it without distancing themselves too much.

Noah had a lot to go through after the battle with Boss Van's guild. His opponents didn't have special space-ring like the members of the Crystal City. He could seize all their items, even if his corrosive smoke and the army of dragons had damaged most of them.

The Soul Stones were sturdier than most inscribed items due to their peculiar nature, so Noah could add almost twenty thousand of them to his stash.

The same wasn't true for the other items. The various cloaking and defensive devices had suffered damages during the battle. Noah could only store them in the hope that an inscription hall would buy them anyway.

Those cultivators didn't have anything valuable. Their status inside the Immortal Lands was too low, and most of their profits went to the guild, so they never managed to accumulate riches.

The most significant gains from the battle were the many dantians seized from the experts' corpses. The Demonic Sword and Snore had failed to preserve their opponents, and Chief Taylor had escaped, but Noah had managed to get his hands on a high number of centers of power anyway.

Noah ate while he turned the black metal obtained in Great Builder's Pyramid into fake cores. He had lost most of his old stash due to the shockwaves radiated from Divine Demon's battle, so he needed to refill it.

Moreover, the workshop could show its real power only if he provided its creations with those simple centers of power. The dragons would be too frail to fight against cultivators in the liquid stage otherwise. His technique would lose most of its value if he depleted all his fake cores.

Finding a new material for the fake cores soon became one of his new priorities after Noah depleted the black metal obtained in the Pyramid. Still, he didn't worry too much about that issue. The Immortal Lands had enough materials to satisfy his needs.

The Demonic Sword advanced while he was busy polishing the workshop. The blade reached the middle tier easily since it depended on Noah's cultivation level.

Only Night was still in the lower tier at that point, but Noah couldn't quicken its growth. The Pterodactyl was different from Snore and the Demonic Sword. Its power didn't depend on Noah's might. He could only create unique darkness to help it.

After he finished dealing with the workshop, Noah could finally focus on other pressing matters. He had two main projects at hand, and he could choose only one before regrouping with Divine Demon.

Noah still had the red crystals obtained in the Evolution Pit, but every project that involved his companions always kept him busy for entire decades. Also, that material carried unknown capabilities that he didn't dare to test on those creatures.

Night, the Demonic Sword, and Snore were core aspects of his power. Noah alone was far stronger than his peers due to his hybrid status, but his companions made him a one-man army. The three peculiar living beings were divine existences that made his prowess increase by a lot.

'Night is only useful inside the dark world for now,' Noah summarized in his mind. 'I should just create a new Blood Companion and study the effects of the red crystals while I wait for it to catch up with my level.'

That decision led to another problem. Noah had Snore and the workshop, so he was already making the best out of the dark matter. Even if he used his higher energy as a core material, he couldn't surpass what he had already built inside the Snake.

It was better to take a magical beast with a useful and powerful innate ability and turn it into an intelligent puppet. His new Blood Companion had to be similar to Night, but Noah didn't know which species suited his current battle prowess.

The Immortal Lands had a different and vast fauna that Noah had yet to understand fully. He couldn't decide on his next Blood Companion without a clear vision of which species he could find in the higher plane.

He couldn't even create something to destroy it afterward since he planned to begin testing the red crystal with his next Blood Companion. That material was a precious resource that he had to handle carefully since he didn't have the power to steal more of it.

With the workshop completed and the matters about the Blood Companions put aside, Noah began to focus on the last field at his disposal.

Being able to use the movement technique again made his battle prowess skyrocket, and it also reminded Noah of how much power he could express when he used all the aspects of his hybrid status.

His personal arts were something that spells and techniques on the same level couldn't match, and Noah wanted more of them. That desire also involved his slashes since they had begun to feel too simple for the types of battles he was facing.

The key to being stronger than any cultivator and magical beast was in that field. Noah had to improve his personal arts if he always wanted to be one step ahead of his opponents even when they were at his same level.

The issue there was that he needed to invent forms capable of surpassing Sword Saint when it came to his slashes. The techniques he used were the best sword strikes available, and he could only overcome them when he involved his individuality.

Apart from the slashes, Noah didn't need to create another personal art, especially after restoring his movement technique. His focus had to go on those attacks.

Noah still had something else to improve after ruling out the other fields. The Divine Deduction technique was in its original form, which was a negative feature that he had yet to fix.

The Divine Deduction technique was incredible even in its current form, but Noah had to transform it into something that could suit his existence. Divine Demon had to do the same after his ascension, but the process was far easier for him since he was its creator.

Noah didn't get anything done during that period of training. His projects would take countless years, and he couldn't hope to complete them before regrouping with Divine Demon.

A few ideas had popped into his mind as he wondered about those three projects, but he eventually decided to wait until his meeting with the Legion to pursue them.

The Legion's members were hybrid. An organization of that kind would surely have studies about fields similar to Noah's personal art, so he felt quite eager to meet them.

The break lasted for almost six months in which Noah mostly ran simulations with the Divide Deduction technique and cultivated. He needed to accumulate experience for his projects to immediately begin them once he obtained the required materials or inspirations.

As for his cultivation, Noah focused on restoring his potential. He lacked an essential feature of his individuality now, and he could only rebuild it slowly during his training sessions.

After six months, Noah and Divine Demon regrouped inside the large underground hall and resurfaced to begin their march toward the Outer Lands.