The windstorm dispersed when Noah destroyed his grandfather's upper body. The saber-shaped runes fell apart and released their energy in the environment as he relaxed.
Silence filled the area inside the scarred defensive walls, and Noah found himself alone in the middle of the wrecked mansion. His consciousness couldn't sense any trace of life, and his eyes could only see the ruins of what had once been his home.
Noah didn't feel anything at that sight.
He felt empty as he landed on the ground and tried to sprint toward the remains of Thomas' corpse.
Yet, he puked blood as soon as he took the first step.
'I'm injured.' Noah thought before straightening his position to keep advancing toward his grandfather.
His last exchanges with Thomas had been inside the windstorm, which had applied a threatening pressure on his body for its whole duration. Noah had endured that damage during the battle to press on with his offensive, but his wounded state became evident once he relaxed.
Most of his bones had cracks, and his muscles had been torn apart in many spots.
Those were injuries that he would take months to fix even with the improved healing properties of his body!
However, he couldn't stop and rest just yet.
Noah slowly closed with the remains of Thomas' corpse. He only found a pair of bloody legs attached to what was left of his waist, but that was enough for him.
The windstorm had modified the trajectory of his saber-shaped runes, but Noah had been careful not to touch his most crucial part.
Noah browsed through the insides of the corpse and found a shining orb that had already begun to disperse its dense energy. Thomas' "Breath" resembled a raging storm as it seeped out of his dantian, which showed that Noah's assumption about his individuality was on point.
Noah directly ate the dantian and closed his eyes to assess the amount of nourishment that it provided him.
His wounded body greedily attacked the shining orb and reduced it into primary energy that nourished all his tissues. Part of its energy went to the injured muscles and bones, but a large share of it simply fed his form as a whole.
Noah felt a warm sensation filling his body, and he could immediately tell that no rank 5 beast in the lower tier could match that amount of energy.
'This should be equal to a bit more than ten rank 5 magical beasts.' Noah thought before storing those remains and moving toward a specific point among the ruins.
His consciousness covered the entirety of the space inside the defensive walls, so finding his target in that mess was quite easy.
Noah slowly walked through the ruins until he reached a big boulder. A human figure appeared when Noah destroyed the block with a light push.
The figure belonged to an old man who had a broken eyepatch on his left eye.
The falling boulder had crushed his chest and his heart with it, but his face still carried his original features.
'The man that I've wanted to kill for so long wasn't even able to survive the fall of a building.' Noah didn't feel anything when he thought that.
Rhys' corpse was right under him, but he didn't feel any satisfaction.
His punch had forced Thomas to go all out, which unleashed his windstorm. Nevertheless, that spell had a large area of effect, and the mansion could only crumble under its pressure.
The cultivators inside it couldn't oppose the pressure either, which forced them to remain still as the mansion fell apart.
A battle between two cultivators that neared the fifth rank in power was bound to create repercussions that human cultivators weren't able to endure.
Noah had mainly used mental attacks, so the humans inside the mansion had been able to endure his offensive. However, Thomas' attack had affected the entirety of the estate, which left the nobles and soldiers inside it with no hope to survive.
'In the end, Thomas killed his family, and I killed my Master. Life is silly at times.' Noah sighed after those thoughts, and his mind began to wander. 'All this hatred toward someone so weak. What am I supposed to do with this feeling now?'
That question gave birth to a series of images that appeared and vanished inside his mind in a cycle.
Lily's face often appeared among those images, but they weren't limited to her. Noah reviewed the entirety of his life inside the Balvan mansion in a matter of seconds, and he could only feel empty when he compared them to the scenery around him.
Yet, his ambition soon began to fill that void.
'My hatred led me to defy the plan of Heaven and Earth.' Noah's aura released a tremor that spread in the matter around him when he thought that. 'All the sacrifices that I've made sharpened by form, but I still had to sever something that I cared about to fulfill my revenge.'
William's face appeared in his vision at that point.
Noah didn't feel good about his death, but he still decided to own that sin. Deluding himself would only hurt his mindset, and he needed to have a clear idea of what he was.
'My pain, my sorrow, and my actions made me become a blade able to sever the fate chosen by Heaven and Earth. No trace of it remains in the world, and only their flaw keeps on living.' He thought.
The matter around him began to fall apart, and "Breath" of the darkness element began to gather around his figure as his mind kept wandering.
Noah was too lost in his thoughts to care about it, but his dantian was forcing his cultivation technique to work at a faster pace!
Succeeding in his revenge and accepting William's killing allowed Noah to gain insights on the destructive part of his individuality. Those insights influenced the behavior of his dantian, which forced the Black hole cultivation technique to provide specific laws to its form.
The whirlpool at the center of the ring seemed to expand as it strived to reach a vaster area where to gather "Breath".
Flying Demon returned in the sky above the mansion at that point. His robe was torn in some spots, but his face was still covered, and he appeared unharmed.
He was about to call for Noah when he noticed the peculiar state in which the Prince was.
Flying Demon could see from his height how the ruins of the mansion turned into dust as the "Breath" of the darkness element inside their matter left them. All that "Breath" gathered around Noah before seeping in his low-waist that greedily absorbed everything.
Flying Demon saw how Noah's aura vanished for a second before spreading again in the environment with a newfound sharpness.
Also, the fact that the aura radiated a power in the solid stage of the fourth rank didn't escape his senses.