Birth of the Demonic Sword

Shafu was a living being, so the ghosts could affect it. However, Noah didn't have to worry about separating reality and illusions when it came to his companions since the mental connection would tell him when something was off.

The rank 9 cultivator's eyes widened in surprise when he saw Shafu's massive mouth closing on the entire army of ghosts and bringing them into the separate space inside its body. He didn't sense the arrival of the dragon at all. Noah had relied on the Shadow Domain to make it appear in the area.

Shafu made sure not to destroy the creatures during the process to limit the spreading of their dark energy, and Noah kept the mental connection in check to confirm that everything worked as planned. The ghosts ended up at the center of his companion's separate space without affecting its mental state, but they immediately tried to spread their influence.

The separate space was immense, but it had clear limits, and the ghosts were quite fast. They immediately started roaming through the incomplete lands made of the dark matter inside Shafu's body, and they came dangerously close to their edges. Their peculiar nature even made them able to affect the very higher energy around them, and Noah soon sensed a force trying to take control of his companion's mind.

Noah didn't hesitate. His hand stretched to reach King Elbas, but the expert's shoulder transformed into golden flames when Noah tried to touch him.

The two exchanged meaningful glances at that point. Noah scolded him with his eyes, and King Elbas didn't hide his intense annoyance. Yet, the latter still solidified and gave Noah the chance to grab him.

"Don't hurt my dragon," Noah warned before throwing King Elbas toward Shafu.

The dragon made his figure disappear as soon as he touched the dark matter that made his scales. It was up to King Elbas to handle the ghosts' situation inside Shafu now. Everyone else could focus on the events unfolding in the outside world.

"You never learn, do you?" The cultivator sighed when Shafu's figure returned inside the Shadow Domain.

The cultivator took a white thorn from inside his large sleeves and stabbed it in the fabric of the world. Cracks in space appeared around the spot where the weapon had pierced the sky, and they spread until they covered the entire area. They were so fast that they crossed Noah and the others before they could do anything to dodge them.

Still, the cracks didn't seem to aim for them. They were looking for a specific type of space, and they found it all around Noah and through most of the area that separated him from the cauldron.

The cracks spread until they became large enough to make enough pieces of the sky crumble at the same time. A dark world unfolded in everyone's vision as the whiteness fell, but those fissures didn't end up leading to the void. Instead, they uncovered a separate dimension that contained Shafu and a few hundreds of Instabilities that Noah had put inside the Shadow Domain before attacking the ghosts.

The sky remained stable in the spots that didn't have the Shadow Domain under them. It seemed that the white thorn was one of the counters made for Noah's techniques, and its effects ended up being exceptional.

"Heaven and Earth know your techniques," The cultivator announced while storing the thorn and picking something else from his sleeves. "They even believe that you are holding something back. Why don't you do all of us a favor and reveal what you have developed in these years?"

The cultivator took a flask filled with a shining white liquid and unsealed its lid before tilting its edge. The fluid started falling toward Shafu, and the dragon instinctively roared at that substance.

Noah reacted differently at that sight. He could sense his black hole shake in fear when his focus converged on the white liquid. It seemed that Heaven and Earth had created something meant to counter his higher energy.

"You can't fight the world," The cultivator laughed. "We will always be one step ahead of you. You can devel-."

The cultivator stopped speaking when he saw that Shafu vanished all of a sudden. He didn't sense any energy running through the area, but that immense dragon had disappeared without leaving any trace.

"Your understanding of space has increased," The cultivator eventually announced as he turned to show a smile toward Noah. "It's how we feared. You might be a suitable successor to those annoying dragons. How is the study of time going? I bet it must be your worst subject."

Noah didn't say anything at those comments. He limited himself to show a cold expression as his attention moved from the spot of the uncovered Shadow Domain where the liquid had fallen and his separate space.

Shafu was safe inside his separate space. Noah had managed to teleport the creature directly into his storage technique since it was still connected to the Shadow Domain. Still, the cultivator had been correct. He couldn't have teleported something so big and at such distance so quickly before his study of the dragons' spheres.

Noah had even left a brim of dark matter in the spot of the Shadow Domain targeted by the white liquid. The fluid's effect turned out to be as he feared. His higher energy simply fell apart and transformed into primary energy when the first white drops fell on it.

Alexander and the others turned toward the cauldron at that point, but the cultivator didn't like that. His hand rose toward the group and started amassing white flames, but two black slashes suddenly filled his vision.

However, his robe lit up before the slashes could land on their target. Noah saw the sharpness contained in his attacks vanishing right before the impact. His techniques crashed on the cultivator in the form of clouds made of dark matter and darkness that didn't have any specific meaning.

"We had also improved our counters," The cultivator revealed as the pressure radiated by his flames dispersed the dark cloud that had enveloped him. "You always fight with experts stronger than you, so it's enough to remove one aspect of your law from your attack to render you harmless."

The white flames shot forward after the line ended. They crossed the sky in an instant and almost landed on Robert, but a figure appeared in front of him and shielded him from the dense bullet.

Robert's eyes widened when he saw Noah's fuming figure standing in front of him. Anger filled his mind, and his aura expanded in the environment, but Noah raised a hand to stop him.

"What are you doing?" Noah asked in a chilling voice. "He has attacked you because he knows that your law can counter the ghosts. You can't join this battle."

"We can help," Alexander responded.

"Elbas can't keep the ghosts at bay for long," Noah explained as a layer of dark matter covered his front and filled the injuries caused by the flames and the previous slashes. "My mind will be at risk once they manage to leave Shafu, so we have to make sure to destroy this item before that. Leave the cultivator to me and focus on your task."

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Author's notes: Time obviously is the main issue. I spend 8-9hours writing the daily 8000 words for my novels, and that's actual writing time. I'm not considering breaks, eating, meditating about the meaning of life in those hours. I basically do nothing but writing, which is an issue when I wake up at 6 pm once because I had a bad day or issues. Will continue in the which will come out in an hour or so.