Birth of the Demonic Sword

The second phase of the breakthrough wasn't painful, but Noah still didn't manage to study much. The empowered mental energy had strange effects on his mind that he couldn't completely understand. It almost seemed to cloud his senses on purpose during the process.

Still, Noah could finally think somewhat properly during that phase, even if his mental energy continued to flow toward the ethereal blackness and return to aid in modifying his mental walls.

It almost felt normal for the mental sphere mind to go through that second phase when Noah thought about it. He had built the ethereal blackness to have far higher standards than the center of power that his organs would naturally generate. Those standards became requirements after the breakthrough that triggered the transformation.

Expectations built inside Noah as the process continued. He couldn't wait to see the new power that his mind would wield after the breakthrough and transformation.

The process forced Noah to remain immersed in complete darkness. His consciousness, eyes, ears, and senses couldn't capture anything. He had experienced something similar only during his first death. The only difference at that time was his awareness. He could think even if he didn't feel his mental energy. He could breathe even if he couldn't inspect the expansion of his lungs. His blood continued to flow, but Noah only knew that it did. He couldn't watch its course through his blood vessels.

That state of apparent death was pure torture. Noah had experienced pain in countless forms, had gone through deep sorrow, and had just survived the cold gazes of his copies. However, that emptiness was suffocating.

One eternity could last one second, and the same went for the opposite process. Noah had long since grown used to losing track of the passage of time, but everything was different in that state since he couldn't sense the hours flowing. He couldn't feel anything other than his thoughts.

The process felt to last for so long that Noah started to wonder whether he had died and his existence had reached a state of non-death. His thoughts went on Supreme Thief and Great Builder since they had died and returned to life. He believed that they had experienced something similar before the Legion resurrected them.

Noah thought about many things, but most of them were nothing more than assumptions generated by his boredom. He had been able to sit in the same position for centuries and millennia at times, but those experiences were nothing compared to what he was going through now. He felt forced to invent games to kill time, but they grew old rather quickly.

A normal human would have long since gone crazy in those conditions. Even many experienced cultivators wouldn't be able to endure that long and tedious process that didn't provide any exciting input. The second phase of the breakthrough was nothing more than a seemingly infinite wait among the complete blackness.

A tremor eventually ran through Noah's body, and he roared in excitement when that happened. He didn't know if he had actually shouted since his sensation had yet to return, but he had felt that quivering, and that was enough to confirm that the procedure didn't kill him.

It took a while, but his sensations eventually started to return. Initially, they were nothing more than isolated events happening once every eternity. Yet, they slowly began to happen more often until Noah became able to control them.

Noah didn't control the actual sensations. He thought about moving his body, and tremors appeared. He planned to do something else, and another feeling spread through his senses. It seemed that his consciousness was slowly adjusting itself to its new state while being fully awake. He simply couldn't feel much.

That realization made Noah hold back from trying to summon his power since he didn't know what damages he could cause in his current condition. He believed that no one would dare to disturb him inside the training area, but it was better not to take risks since he didn't know the limits of his new level.

Flashes of orange light eventually appeared in his vision and generated another wave of excitement. Noah had never felt happier to see that radiance so similar to the initial Heaven Tribulations, but he quickly understood that something was off.

The light felt different, almost distant. Noah felt able to sense its power and laws, but he couldn't see it as part of the world anymore. It seemed to belong to something far away.

It didn't take Noah much to understand that the light didn't change. His perception came from inside the personal world created with his existence, so everything naturally appeared distant. He had basically applied a barrier between him and his surroundings.

The effects weren't as intense as the Shadow Domain, and they didn't apply any restriction or limit to his senses. That was his new perspective. Noah's mind had become part of the personal world created by his existence, so it naturally put some distance from his surroundings.

The flashes of light happened more often until the training area reappeared in Noah's vision. He could see his worried companions, the familiar inscriptions on the surfaces, and the faint marks caused by his previous procedures. He could even sense the lingering energy of his flames on the ceiling.

'I did end up roaring,' Noah laughed before closing his eyes and focusing on his mental sphere.

The new state of his center of power left Noah speechless. He had always thought that his mental sphere had been the organ that had gone through fewer changes throughout his cultivation journey. Nevertheless, that idea became completely wrong now.

Noah's mental energy was the same ethereal black liquid, but its density had increased. It had gained a mud-like texture that contained an incredible amount of power and influence. He almost felt able to lift mountains with that fuel.

Still, the greatest changes happened with his mental walls. They had gained scarlet shades due to his bloodlust, but the new mental energy had transformed them. They had turned them so dark that Noah struggled to see the Demonic Deduction technique. He actually had to activate it to make sure that the breakthrough didn't sweep the inscriptions away, and he partially regretted that second spent among his enhanced thinking speed.

The violent thoughts that his mind generated when it fed on the bloodlust contained on the new mental sea were so intense that the air around him shattered. Noah's eyes even began to shine with a blinding dark-red light that suppressed the orange shades in the training area.

Moreover, they weren't simple thoughts anymore. They had transformed into urges. Noah found himself raising his hands toward the inscriptions above him and spread his influence during that instant immersed in his violent thoughts.

The urge ended before Noah could activate any technique, but disbelief still filled him when he saw that black lines had appeared on those orange inscriptions. His destruction was ready to burst and damage them. He had become able to affect some of the old rulers' creations, and that feat had barely taken any effort.

However, the most striking change in his perception came from how he saw the laws. Noah had been able to inspect the true meanings that filled the matter for millennia already, but they appeared as minute parts of a larger system now. It was as if his consciousness had stopped looking at the plane's bricks and had started to see the world as a whole.

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Author's notes: I'm still paying the price for yesterday's late publication. I need another hour for the third chapter.