Birth of the Demonic Sword

Understanding what was happening felt almost too easy. The immense blade, the anger in the cultivator's eyes, and his fixed stare toward Sword Saint hinted at the expert's recent breakthrough.

'He suffered when the array sword path forced its laws to go to Sword Saint,' Noah concluded in an instant as his eyes coldly studied the expert.

The cultivator was tall and skinny. His cheeks were so caved in that everyone could see the shape of his skull. Long grey hair fell from his head, but it seemed to lack multiple patches since completely bald spots appeared when it fluttered in the soft wind lingering in the area.

The expert's eyes were completely white. They didn't have pupils or irises, but the cultivator didn't appear blind. Everyone could feel the direction of the organs' focus and the emotion that they carried.

The cultivators that descended from the sky usually had haughty figures, but the expert sitting on the immense sword appeared on the verge of death, at least when it came to his physical features. His cultivation level still raged firmly, which revealed its stable position in the solid stage of the ninth rank.

The immense sword had severed the hydra in half, but the creature's flames tried to link the two pieces back together. Still, their attempt attracted the cultivator's attention, and he limited himself to slam his palm on the blade's handle.

The simple gesture made the blade radiate blinding white light again, but Noah was ready at that time. Dark matter promptly appeared in front of the group and created a transparent cover that could block the radiance while allowing them to see the events unfolding in the distance.

The light gathered at the bottom of the sword before flowing toward its tip stabbed in the ground. The event lasted less than a second and generated a sharp shockwave around the weapon that replicated those movements.

The entirety of the hydra ended up being on the path of that sharp descending force. The creature had enough time to raise its nine heads and spit flames, but its struggles turned out to be pointless. The shockwave cut through everything and severed King Elbas' creation into a series of tiny golden flames.

The small flames tried to fuse back together and give birth to a weaker version of the hydra, but they found themselves unable to restore their previous connection. They even started burning each other due to the different nature obtained after the attack.

The tiny flames had a deep desire to live. They tried to shoot toward the storms, but the cultivator had spread the empty area even more during his arrival. Those fiery dots dispersed before they could even cover half of the path required to reach the chaotic laws.

The cultivator snorted once the last flame disappeared. He stood up and pointed its angry eyes toward Sword Saint again, but he didn't say anything. He seemed to study the expert for reasons that the group couldn't understand.

The joking mood of Noah's group had vanished as soon as the solid stage had laned on the area. They wouldn't fear an upper tier creature created by King Elbas because they knew that their companion knew how to counter it.

Moreover, the hydra had advanced to the upper tier after burning the army of flying cockroaches, which meant that its requirements were relatively poor. All its power probably went on its offensive and regenerative ability, but its innate defenses appeared far below average.

Instead, the sole idea that they had to face a proper cultivator in the solid stage made their mood grow solemn. They weren't ready for that situation on multiple levels. Most of them were exhausted after the previous fights, and the sheer difference in their power was enough to prove how hopeless that situation could be.

"You ants have overstepped," The cultivator announced in a hoarse voice. "You shouldn't have touched the sky."

King Elbas and the experts who had fought against the swarm slowly moved their eyes toward Sword Saint and Noah, but the latter tilted his head to point at his companion. The others cursed internally to learn that they were really guilty of messing with the sky, and countless plans tried to form inside their minds.

The situation didn't improve even when they inspected it from different perspectives. Doom awaited those who dared to face a solid stage cultivator. That was the true peak of the world, while most experts had yet to step on the last rank of the cultivation journey.

Plans, defiance, and luck couldn't do anything in front of pure power. Noah saw the very reason why he had embarked on the cultivation journey standing in front of him. In his mind, the threat that the solid stage cultivator posed to his group proved that everything was pointless without strength.

Noah prepared himself to deploy everything he had, and similar resolves filled his friends. Holding trump cards back was pointless in front of the threat of death, but their eyes sharpened when a tremor ran through their opponent.

The cultivator's power flickered for an instant. It moved from the solid stage to the bottom of the gaseous stage. It even threatened to drop into the eighth rank, but the expert quickly regained control of himself. However, the scene that unfolded in his vision had changed drastically.

Noah and the others were still standing in the sky. They didn't deploy their weapons nor prepared techniques during that short moment of weakness. Yet, their mood was completely different, and the same went for their expression.

Seven cold smiles filled the cultivator's vision. The hopelessness that his arrival had spread was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a chilling feeling replaced that tension.

"Elbas, give me something capable of awakening my mind," Noah ordered.

"We are talking about one of the best drugs in the world here," King Elbas complained.

Noah didn't add anything else. He limited himself to stretch his hand toward the expert, who heaved an annoyed sigh while taking out something from his space-ring and placing it in his friend's palm.

Noah studied the pitch-black pill in the lower tier at the center of his palm. Its shades and the aura that it radiated showed how King Elbas didn't make that drug while having himself in mind. It had created it for Noah, and the latter could even guess when that had happened.

"Did you make it when you saw the new level of my mind?" Noah teased.

"It just happened," King Elbas dismissed. "Do what you have to do before he decides to attack."

Noah didn't need King Elbas' reminder. He threw the pill in the air and tilted his head back as his consciousness shot toward the enemy cultivator. A small brim of the energy contained inside his ethereal darkness flowed toward his mental sphere at that point, and the world sensed by him transformed.

Countless inspections followed by a sea of destructive ideas filled his thoughts for a period he could easily misjudge as millennia. In truth, only one second went by between the activation and end of his superior mental state. Yet, that time was enough to understand everything he needed to know to win that battle. It would be brutal and bloody, but it was doable, and that was enough for someone like him.

His mind tried to fall into a coma due to the side effects of that immense boost in its capabilities. Still, the black pill fell inside his open mouth at that point. The drug melted, and a scorching sensation filled his mental walls. They quickly restored his mental sea under the effects of that urge, which prevented his sea of consciousness from going limp.