Birth of the Demonic Sword

The man's announcement made most of the experts in Noah's group shake their heads. Luke had warned them about the cultivator's character, but they didn't expect him to be so straightforward about it.

"You are?" Noah asked while his superior awareness did its best to study the expert.

Noah had fought solid stage cultivators already, but they had always belonged to Heaven and Earth's system. Those opponents couldn't rely on their real power. They were always at their weakest during the battles.

"Names are a currency in the secret organization," The cultivator exclaimed, "But I'll make an exception for you. I'll tell you my name if you survive the next exchange."

Noah glanced at Luke, but the latter pretended not to see that. He had already warned Noah about the expert's personality. It was his problem to handle now.

"This sounds like a challeng-!" Divine Demon tried to shout while flying forward, but Jordan and Wilfred promptly covered his mouth and dragged him back to the sidelines.

Robert couldn't help but laugh at that scene, but a faint sharpness suddenly spread behind him. The expert turned and saw that Sword Saint had placed a hand under his chin while following the old man with his covered eyes.

"Are we all battle maniacs?" June asked at that sight.

June's cultivation level had forced her to remain behind during many missions. She had yet to know all the experts inside Noah's team properly, but she liked what she saw.

"Idiot usually describes all of them," King Elbas sighed.

"I'll take care of this," Noah said while turning toward Sword Saint.

The expert scoffed, but he retracted his sharpness. He wanted to test his blade against the solid stage cultivator, but he respected Noah's needs.

No one else could take care of that battle. The cultivator wouldn't bother to respect Noah's organization if he let his companions fight. He had to show his value as a leader to one of the heads of the secret organization.

"Nice guts," The old man exclaimed when Noah stepped forward and the Demonic Sword appeared in his hand.

"I'll cut through your attack," Noah announced. "Come."

The old man inspected Noah. He had studied the reports about Defying Demon, so he knew most of his abilities. The lack of enhancement of his cultivation level left the expert confused. It seemed that Noah wanted to face his attack without improving his centers of power.

"You shouldn't be so arrogant," The old man shouted. "I don't know what you have gone through on the other side of the Immortal Lands, but I won't accept this amount of disrespect. You'll die if you don't rely on your law."

"We are divine entities," Noah sighed. "We are laws."

The old man smirked before raising his hand. His aura expanded and created a domain that fused with the matter of the world and altered its nature.

Everything became stiff. Noah sensed the air solidifying next to him, but his eyes confirmed that it wasn't transforming. It was still air. It had only gained the same density as metal.

'This isn't an evolution,' Noah thought without moving his eyes away from the expert. 'It's not an enhancement either.'

"There is a thin line between determination and madness," The old man announced. "Do you think we have crossed it? Do you think cultivators should have accepted the eighth rank as a limit?"

"It doesn't matter what I think," Noah replied. "Ambition will appear as long as lifeforms exist. It doesn't have to be reasonable. Someone will inevitably try to climb a mountain as long as it has a peak."

"What if the journey kills you?" The old man asked as the space above his hand began to twist.

"You can always decide to stay away from the mountain," Noah laughed. "Still, you need power to stop others from approaching the journey, and only the mountain can give you power."

"What if the mountain is the very sky the shines above you?" The old man continued with his questions.

"The mountain is the sky, the ground, and the very air you breathe," Noah replied. "You are born inside the journey."

"But you can choose how to live it," The old man asked while pointing his hand toward Noah.

Space began to twist even in that spot, but Noah didn't feel anything dangerous yet. He could sense that the expert wanted to test his character, and a difference in opinions might trigger the clash.

"Can you?" Noah asked. "Do you really have the ability to choose when everything around you holds power?"

"So, you seized power to gain the ability to choose," The old man commented.

"I seized power to gain the ability to live," Noah contradicted him.

"Heaven and Earth put you in the wrong species," The old man continued as his fingers arched. "You should have been born as a magical beast."

"I fixed that part," Noah laughed. "I can assure you that Heaven and Earth messed up far worse than you think."

"How can a being that lives for power even lead other existences?" The old man asked.

"By leading to power, obviously," Noah replied.

"You only want war," The old man said.

"I only want to cut the mountain in half," Noah laughed again.

"You are pure destruction!" The cultivator shouted. "A leader can't be a mere warmonger."

"Who said that?" Noah shrugged his shoulders. "Who makes the rules? Who decides the definitions? Reach the stars if you want to apply your ideas to the world, but get in line."

"It's sad that these pointers will gain value only if your power can back them up," The cultivator sighed.

"I told you," Noah laughed. "It's all a matter of power."

The old man shook his head before closing his fingers into a fist. A gale made of dense matter shot out of his hand and twisted the space around it as it flew through the sky.

Noah's eyes sharpened as intense anger spread from his figure. The Demonic Deduction technique activated to inspect the blow, and his blade moved as he learnt about its structural weaknesses.

'I'll cut through this attack,' Noah thought as his ambition flowed toward the Demonic Sword and created a dark halo around its edge.

Noah withdrew the Demonic Sword before thrusting it forward. A small black slash came out of its edge and transformed into a minute flying blade that flew toward the dense gale.

A spiderweb of black lines spread inside the gale as soon as the small sword touched it. Noah's attack seeped inside the dense energy and triggered the power acc.u.mulated inside the black marks whenever it passed through them. It didn't take much before chunks of the cultivator's ability dispersed back into the environment.

The old man couldn't believe his eyes. Noah's attack didn't reach the solid stage, but his gale seemed unable to face it. The small sword had enhanced every instability in his spell before activating them through its power. The ability was basically falling apart due to its own energy.

The blade crossed and dispersed the entire gale before vanishing once it left the attack. The old man tried to grab the energy contained in Noah's slash, but he couldn't find it when his hand reached that spot.

Instead, the expert discovered that part of his domain had transformed. The laws in that spot didn't belong to him anymore. The air had mutated into a small rock that seemed able to generate a heavy pressure similar to his technique.

"My name is Steven," The old man announced while studying the rock. "I hope you can pull this off again."