Birth of the Demonic Sword

It wasn't wise to activate the ethereal blackness for a center of power that had just advanced, especially after the fuel inside the incomplete world improved. Noah didn't even know what drawbacks it could cause to the dantian, but he didn't have another solution. The black hole needed more darkness, so he would provide it.

The ethereal blackness was an insane pool of potential. Noah guessed that it had to power to push his dantian directly to the limits of the gaseous stage, if not more, but he didn't care about temporary improvements now. He needed more darkness for the black hole, and that was exactly what he told the incomplete world to do.

Noah's dantian started producing darkness like crazy while his figure created a black pillar that disrupted the whiteness even further. The sky transformed as energy leaked out of that mass of power. Black currents grew from the structure as if they were the branches of a tree that didn't know when to stop.

The branches soon transformed into small clouds that expanded on their own, but the higher energy eventually enveloped them. The black hole expanded beyond reason and forced everyone to retreat again. Only Caesar slowed down his retreat to make sure to have the best view of the event.

The black hole resembled a dense ocean with every intention to take the next step in its evolution. It expanded until it simply didn't anymore. Its currents also stopped flowing, but darkness continued to fill its insides. The structure wanted more energy, but it didn't use it to increase its size.

A change happened when the black hole shrunk slightly. The event caused a chain reaction that generated a passive pulling force. The massive structure began to cave in, creating currents in its surroundings.

Entire chunks of the sky crumbled due to the pulling force generated by the event. Some cultivators even found themselves captured in those waves. The breakthrough was a calamity for those who didn't have enough power to oppose it. It killed and destroyed without caring about its surroundings, and Noah's companions also risked falling prey to that might. Luckily for them, King Elbas had promptly created suitable items that could fend off those effects.

Noah barely thought after activating the ethereal blackness. The empowerment lasted longer than he expected, but a deep sense of weakness filled his very existence when it ended. Noah felt as if his ambition wanted to fall apart together with the various aspects that depended on it. He actually feared that he could lose some of his newest features due to those drawbacks.

Nevertheless, his breakthroughs had destroyed so much of his surroundings that the environment brimmed with energy that he could steal. He had even forced most of it to improve while his dantian advanced, so he ended up absorbing a massive amount of top-tier fuel that fought against the drawbacks and quickly awakened his ambition.

The black hole continued to shrink while Noah dealt with the drawbacks. It never stopped absorbing energy, but it quickly gained features that felt final when he inspected them.

Large masses of dark matter gave birth to proper chunks that carried metallic properties. They even shone with a light that seemed able to match the whiteness in terms of passive pressure. That feature only intensified as more areas solidified while the center of power shrunk.

The event was so violent that some chunks shattered and returned liquid, but they didn't remain in that state for too long. The density of the black hole increased and reached unfathomable levels. The shrinking process even stopped creating currents at some point, but the sheer pressure generated by the center of power made the light in the environment bend. Part of the laws around Noah directly shattered when they experienced that force.

The black hole shrunk until Noah became visible. Still, his chest remained hidden since the center of power struggled to return inside his figure. Yet, the process continued as more darkness entered its structure and completed the breakthrough.

The black hole had been a rotating mass of dark matter contained by stable walls in the past, but nothing moved in its insides now. The higher energy turned solid and became a crystal that occupied the center of Noah's chest.

The center of power felt so heavy that Noah found it hard to keep his back straight. He bent forward, but that only worsened his condition. His body seemed unable to handle the weight of the black crystal. He felt the faint instinct to open his chest and take it out, but he suppressed that desire since the organ finally started to work.

The black crystal trembled, and Noah shook with it. The reaction of his tissues informed the organ about their state so that it could decide how to proceed.

The fourth center of power trembled again to send its energy toward the ethereal blackness. The incomplete world obviously didn't accept it right away, and it threw it back after improving it a little. The black crystal then tried again to meet that structure's standards, and the cycle continued until the organ experienced a thorough strengthening.

Noah's dantian and mind experienced another round of improvements after the new dark matter joined the ethereal blackness and fused with the fuel in its insides. He bathed in that sensation of power, but his organs didn't let the long event end there.

The black crystal shook, and dark matter immediately filled the entirety of Noah's body. It even came out before taking the form of a crystal-like fiendish armor that started to work on his fabric.

The black crystal strived to turn Noah into the perfect being, and it had just reached the ninth rank now. Its understanding and standards had changed, so his structure had to improve to appease that desire.

Noah almost cursed in his mind when he sensed the requirements of his body increasing. The other centers of power experienced a similar change, but the black crystal completed the process in no time. It even filled Noah's insides with layers of solid dark matter meant to stabilize his structure.

His body had been on the verge of falling apart after the many breakthroughs. After all, Noah had just multiplied his number of rank 9 assets. His body had needed help, and the black crystal didn't hesitate to do its best to stabilize everything. That was only a temporary solution, but he knew that he would rely on it until he reached the ninth rank with the entirety of his assets.

Noah opened his eyes when a loud roar came out of his chest. A smile appeared on his face as he stretched his left arm and let a blade materialize in his hand. The Demonic Sword had stepped into the ninth rank right after his dantian advanced, but the black crystal had claimed the entirety of his attention.

'Yes, we'll fight now,' Noah conveyed through the mental connection as solid dark matter seeped out of his figure.

Caesar began to laugh madly as he inspected the scene. Instead, his companions showed strange expressions in front of the appearance of the dark world. Its previous version was a dense sea, but it had transformed into a crystal-like mass of higher energy now, and the experts couldn't help but notice similarities with the sky. Noah's technique resembled a black version of the immense white structure.

Dinia scoffed and began to approach the massive dark world, and many cultivators decided to follow him. However, they had to get ready to defend themselves when a series of rank 9 creatures left the crystal-like structure. An army of six-armed dragons soon appeared around the solid chunk of higher energy and began to roar at their opponents.

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Author's notes: Shoutout for IndraDeus again. Thank you for the spacecraft!