The ability used by Noah at that moment was the modified version of the Ghostly claws spell.
The diagram of that spell was able to reach a power in the fifth rank, so the modifications applied during his years inside the separate dimension were enough to make it suitable for his individuality. Noah had only reviewed it a bit during the period before the attack, but the spell was perfected already.
The claws had become sabers at that point, which made Noah change its name into Ghostly sabers spell.
The spell worked in the same way of its previous version, with the difference that its destructive power had wholly increased.
Keith and the other fake heroic cultivator retreated at high speed when they saw the ethereal sabers reaching for them, but they were too slow. Cultivators at the bottom of the heroic ranks couldn't match the speed and power of a spell in the fifth rank, especially one so hard to defend against.
The inscriptions on their robes shone only to flicker when the tide of sabers seeped in their bodies and pierced their internal organs.
Also, the saber released a spreading destruction when they reached their target.
Keith and the woman paled as blood came out of their mouths. Their insides were a mess, and they couldn't stop the spreading destruction even with their complete focus. They could only see how their consciousness began to fade before they lost control of their footholds and fell on the ground.
Noah didn't know if they had died, but the situation didn't allow him to check it. His eyes were on the rank 5 cultivator that was using one of his defensive spells to fend off the incoming sabers.
Thomas had directly used one of his most potent defensive spells when he sensed the amount of danger radiated by the ethereal sabers. Dense gales engulfed his figure and destroyed Noah's attacks with their raging motion.
Noah was backing the spell with the energy contained in his Liquid dantian, so he wasn't holding back his offensive in the slightest.
However, Thomas had access to the dense gaseous "Breath" of the fifth rank, which pushed the power of his spell to the peak of the fourth rank. Also, he was aware of Noah's abilities, so he had chosen the method that countered them better.
The gales were dense and contained a large amount of his mental energy, which managed to stop the advance of the sabers. Yet, that was still a spell with the power of the fourth rank, and there was a limit to how much it could resist against Noah's attack.
Thomas was soon forced to let go of William's corpse to focus on defending himself.
The wind began to rotate around Thomas as he wielded a big fan and started to wave it. An invisible whirlpool formed around him as he kept on condensing air with his fan, but Noah's attention had moved on William's falling corpse.
His Master was smiling even after he died, but the destruction released by Noah's spell was still consuming his body. A rank 4 body could only crumble in front of a rank 5 spell, and William didn't even have much "Breath" left inside it.
Noah saw how his Master turned into bloody dust during the fall, before becoming a simple red stain on the ground of the outer circle.
His gaze lingered on the stain for a few seconds, and he didn't even care that Thomas had completed his attack.
He just wanted to fix those images in his mind.
Of course, Thomas didn't wait for his opponent to be ready and unleashed the winds that he had condensed around him.
Those winds became a thick current that threatened to destroy everything in its path as it moved toward the hooded figure on the ground.
Noah saw that scene in slow motion.
His consciousness was too powerful, and he couldn't be distracted even if he focused on something else. Yet, he didn't move, and he let the thick current crash on his figure.
Noah felt pain when the dense winds slammed him on the ground and pushed him downward, creating a deep hole in the terrain of the outer circle. Earthquakes spread from that point, and even the inscribed defensive walls nearby threatened to crumble under the might of a rank 5 cultivator's attack.
The entirety of the Balvan mansion began to shake, but Thomas didn't fail to notice that the tremors seemed to stop right after the defensive walls abruptly. Some sort of energy was isolating the mansion and prevented the energy released inside it from spreading outside.
Thomas' eyes sharpened at that sight.
He didn't lack experience nor wits. He had only lacked wealth in his life.
He had never been able to obtain a rank 5 cultivation technique before, which led him to stop his training at the peak of the solid stage. His dantian had stagnated for decades in that stage, and it had been able to survive the breakthrough only thanks to the expensive drugs provided by the Royal family.
So, he knew that his grandson had some helpers that were managing the situation around the mansion.
Nevertheless, he suddenly felt a stabbing pain coming from his heart.
Thomas spit blood as his consciousness quickly focused on his internal organs. His mind noticed how a couple of ethereal sabers were running freely inside his body and tearing apart anything in their path.
Anger rose inside him when he understood that Noah had used his dense winds as a pathway for his ethereal sabers!
Thomas' defense was good, and it even countered the ethereal properties of Noah's spell. However, he had been defenseless when he used the winds around him to attack.
Noah had used that chance to send a large number of sabers through the current, and only two of them survived the journey to land inside Thomas' body.
Thomas began to use his "Breath" to restrain the movements of the sabers inside him, but he could only make them deplete their power more quickly. Meanwhile, they continued to tear his internal organs apart and spread their destruction through his body.
Also, Thomas knew that Noah was still alive!
He had used the full power a rank 5 martial art, coupled with a rank 4 item and his rank 5 "Breath", but Noah was still able to control his spell after that blow! That attack was one of Thomas' most potent offensives, and even a direct hit wasn't able to take care of someone with a rank 4 dantian.
Thomas began to feel fear, but the appearance of more than a hundred black sabers forced him to suppress that feeling to focus on the battle.