Noah already had an idea on how to proceed for the creation of his new cultivation technique. He had memorized how his body had transformed the primary energy in "Breath" of the darkness element during the transformation. So, the general structure of the "Breath" had been in his mind for a while by then.
However, he had to modify that structure since the resulting energy was weaker than the "Breath" in the environment and didn't express his individuality, which was the main requirement at his level.
His meditations after the transformation though had focused on that issue, so he could claim that he wasn't approaching the testing phase blindly.
The essential feature of a cultivation technique was its ability to gather energy from the environment. Noah had already managed to create that with the Black Hole technique, but he felt that merely improving his old ring wouldn't be enough to express the entirety of his individuality.
He needed something personal that encompassed all the various shades of his complicated existence, and nothing could fill that position better than his Demonic Sword.
As a living weapon created due to the peculiar mental state reached during the transformation, the Demonic Sword carried many features that the perfect hybrids had. Its entire structure worked as a dantian and absorbed "Breath" from the environment, turning it into primary energy that became part of it.
That was an ability belonging to the magical beasts' world and, to be more precise, to the Elite beasts' world since it involved an organ that acted as a dantian.
However, the Demonic Sword was also an expression of Noah's individuality, which carried all its features. Its aura would leave a trail of primary energy due to its destructive properties. Also, the fact that it was a living being represented the peak of Noah's creation.
Once chosen the Demonic Sword as the core for his new cultivation technique, Noah had to improve its ability to absorb the energy in the environment. The natural suction force of the blade wouldn't be able to satisfy his dantian.
That was the easy part. Noah had become more than experienced in creating a vortex that could gather "Breath" and primary energy, and he had already learnt how to modify the "Breath" blessings to focus only on the darkness element.
Yet, he didn't need to use that mineral to gather only one type of "Breath" now since it wouldn't make any difference once the blade turned it into primary energy. Instead, he needed to tune the blue crystals with the Demonic Sword's suction force.
Noah didn't waste too much time on that part. He had an innate understanding of the Demonic Sword, and its suction force was one of the few things that he could study thoroughly.
The only issue concerned the amount of "Breath" blessings to use. After all, he aimed to forge a rank 5 inscribed item, which meant that each failure would cost him and the Hive quite a bit even with the prices lowered.
There weren't ways to avoid that problem though. Noah would eventually be forced to test the procedure conceived with the help of the Divine Deduction technique.
There was even a problem connected to his empty dantian, which Noah solved it by spending a long time gathering small bits of "Breath" of the darkness element inside his mind through the ability gained from the natives' inscription method. That was a slow and tedious process since the "Breath" needed to be at least at the peak of the fourth rank, or he couldn't even hope for the forging to produce something in the fifth rank.
Weeks passed in the silence of the underground quarters in which Noah did nothing but gather enough "Breath" to perform six rounds of forging.
Undergoing a breakthrough between ranks without having a suitable cultivation technique was a mistake that he had been forced to commit, and now he was paying the price just to accumulate that energy at the peak of the fourth rank.
The actual creation though went far better than he expected.
In his idea, he would have to forge the "Breath" blessings into a ring to place on his Demonic Swords when he needed to increase its suction force. To do that, he imbued the "Breath" accumulated in his mind with his greed and the powder from his ethereal stomach. Then, he set his consciousness to radiate the same aura of the blade and used the modified walls of his mental sphere to disguise his thoughts as laws.
Of course, Noah had yet to complete inscribing the walls of his mind, but the effect obtained surpassed his expectations nonetheless.
The energy obtained after all those modifications seemed to be a perfect imitation of the Demonic Sword. It was as if it had always been part of the blade.
When using that modified "Breath" in the forging, the "Breath" blessings would start to radiate an aura so similar to his weapon that the Demonic Sword often inspected the huge crystals condensing under Noah's control.
It took him four attempts to succeed in his task. He ultimately failed the first two forgings, and the third one only produced an item at the peak of the fourth rank.
Nevertheless, at his fourth try and after the Hive had been forced to refill his stash of materials twice, he managed to create a complete rank 5 item.
Noah didn't hesitate to test it. The item appeared as an opaque crystal ring with dark shades that radiated a violent aura without really affecting its surroundings.
Yet, when Noah inserted it in the hilt of the Demonic Sword, the innate suction force of the blade skyrocketed, and the "Breath" in the underground area gathered on it in an instant.
The blade released a happy roar, but Noah saw how most of that energy lingered around it and didn't manage to become part of its structure. It seemed that it wasn't able to absorb it due to some external limitations.
'It won't grow while my dantian remains in this state.' Noah concluded at that sight and moved toward the next phase of his experimentation.
Connecting the blade to his dantian wasn't a problem. The two of them were almost the same existence. Noah believed that he wouldn't even need to stab his low-waist at that point.
However, the moment had come for him to face the steepest hindrance in the creation of his cultivation technique. He had to assemble the primary energy in a "Breath" that reflected his individuality.
Noah dispersed the remaining "Breath" that he had painstakingly accumulated in his mind and created a few more spherical runes to accelerate the inscription of his walls. Then, he created another spherical rune that didn't contain any trace of his copy of Heaven and Earth's aura and started to focus his entire consciousness on it.
Only laws could control the behavior of the primary energy, but Noah could just make his thoughts resemble them. Yet, that had to be enough since he needed to find the right method to assemble that primary energy to create a darkness that was only his.