Noah's bit the ox's neck when he came out of the Warp spell.
The rank 5 magical beast was too injured to react and couldn't avoid that sudden attack.
Its neck had already lost a chunk of flesh, and that last bite tore another strand of skin and muscles.
Then, Noah waved his sabers upward.
The head of the Hairy ox fell on the ground after those slashes, and its body prostrated as life abandoned it.
Noah couldn't help but roar at the sky at that point.
Killing his first rank 5 creature filled his being with pride, it was as if that battle had sealed his entrance in the fifth rank!
'My dantian and Liquid dantian are basically empty, and even my remaining mental energy isn't enough to keep the Divine deduction technique active for long. Fighting a rank 5 beast is expensive.'
Noah thought as he sat on the ground and began to eat the corpse of his prey.
The feeling of having his first satisfying meal since he entered the fifth rank didn't stop him from analyzing the battle.
He could finally understand where he stood compared to other cultivators, fighting the ox had forced him to use all his assets after all.
'My defense is clearly in the fifth rank, but my offensive is somewhere in the solid stage of the fourth rank. My physical strength is in the fifth rank too, but I don't believe that my enemies will ever let me get close to them.'
Noah summarized as he munched the sturdy meat of the ox.
Anything that made use only of his body was on the same level of rank 5 beasts in the lower tier, but his other attacks could only reach the power of a rank 4 cultivator in the solid stage.
Of course, that was possible only thanks to his Liquid dantian.
Noah's new inscribed item gathered the energy released by his body during the activation of the secret art.
That energy was the basic form of the "Breath", it was the pure substance in which the "Breath" was transformed once his body absorbed it.
That energy, coupled with his physical might or mental energy, gave birth to martial arts and spells that could match a solid stage cultivator.
'I guess rank 4 cultivators in the solid stage can be a match for rank 5 beasts in the lower tier, which means that I can't beat rank 5 cultivators unless I reach the middle tier or improve my other centers of power.'
Noah quickly established a list of the power levels between cultivators and magical beasts.
He couldn't be sure about those details before because his level was simply too low to evaluate such powerful existences.
However, after the breakthrough, he could finally begin to understand the differences between the fourth and fifth rank when it came to beasts and humans.
'Using defensive arts and spells is useless in my current state, my body alone would match their power. I should focus all my energies on my offensive and leave my protection to my natural defenses.'
Noah concluded when his analysis was over.
A rank 5 beast in the lower tier could be compared to a rank 4 cultivator in the solid stage, which meant that the spells fueled by his Liquid dantian could only match his natural defenses.
So, it was better to use his small reserves of energy to improve his offensive since he wouldn't have many chances to touch his opponents in the future.
The images of his battle against Adrian had spread through the big nations, only fools would let someone like Noah get close to them after seeing them.
'Flames, Dragon's claw martial art, and spells for my offensive, with the last two being fueled by my Liquid dantian.'
'Shadow sprint martial art fueled by my dantian for a burst of speed that can take even liquid stage cultivators by surprise, and fueled by the Liquid dantian to match those in the solid stage.'
'Skin and muscles for my defense, it's pointless to waste my "Breath" to use defensive spells that can only match my body.'
Noah set those points in his mind, that was the best way to use his centers of power in his view.
The corpse of the ox soon disappeared from the ground, only a few red spots remained on the terrain after Noah was done with his meal.
The four wounds on his abdomen had already stopped bleeding and were beginning to heal.
The regenerative capabilities of the Yin body had been passed down when Noah fused himself with a Cursed dragon, and they had obviously been enhanced after the breakthrough.
Injuries that would take weeks or months to heal would be fixed in days or weeks due to the regenerative proprieties spread through his body by his black heart.
'I need a few weeks to heal completely, but I can start to move in a week or so already. Being a hybrid is awesome, but the issue of the "Breath" required for the breakthrough is quite problematic.'
Noah thought as he activated the secret art to refill his Liquid dantian.
His body required far more "Breath" to improve compared to the other magical beasts, but Noah had never considered it an issue since his higher battle prowess would allow him to hunt powerful creatures safely.
However, the ox that he had just eaten didn't make him improve by much.
Noah felt as if its nourishment was akin to that provided by peak rank 4 creatures when he was still in the fourth rank.
That realization made Noah understand that he would probably need a hundred or so rank 5 magical beasts to reach the middle tier!
After all, he had eaten countless rank 4 creatures and even a few dantians to reach the upper tier when he still had a rank 4 body, and his requirements in terms of energy had only increased after the breakthrough.
'Where am I even going to find a hundred rank 5 creatures that I can kill?'
Noah couldn't even begin to imagine the struggles that he would have to go through to find one hundred rank 5 creatures.
'The Albino snake sure is patient, it would need tens of thousands rank 4 snakes in the lower tier to improve. How many years would it take?'
The images of the valley in Twilboia Cliff reappeared in his mind when he understood that reaching the sixth rank would take centuries.
The issue was that there weren't enough powerful magical beasts in the entirety of the Mortal Lands according to his prospects!
'What would happen in the sixth rank? How many rank 6 beasts are even around? Ten? Twenty? They are not enough to make me advance!'
It was at that point that Noah understood why magical beasts were innately inclined to assault the encampments and cities of the humans.
That understanding made him aware of one basic necessity that he had to fulfill if he wanted to avoid spending millennia absorbing the "Breath" in the environment.
'I need to eat dantians.'