'A darkness made of destructive swords able to take any form.' Noah thought as he stared at the tiny cloud in his palm. 'Its power is on par with the "Breath" found in the environment, but it will be stronger when I use it to fuel my abilities.'
In the end, Noah's "Breath" didn't manage to surpass the power of Heaven and Earth's, but matching it was already an incredible result. After all, his energy was perfect for his individuality and would give birth to more potent effects when paired with abilities with the same properties.
As for surpassing Heaven and Earth's standard, he had been forced to give up on that. There was simply too much that he didn't understand when the laws were involved, and the continuous trial and error could only bring him so far.
Yet, Noah didn't feel disappointed with the result. He had finally created an energy that didn't exist in the world. The tiny cloud was "Breath" made by him and for him. It was his darkness, something that he had meant to create since he started to uncover the depths of his individuality.
Also, there was still King Elbas' research, which Noah knew would allow him to surpass the world's standards.
'No signs of Tribulation.' Noah thought as his consciousness reached for the sky above the dome. 'I can begin the final phase immediately.'
Heaven and Earth appeared to be whimsical when it came to Tribulations that didn't concern the breakthroughs in specific ranks. Noah had triggered it when he created hybrids, and something similar had happened with the ancestors of the other world.
That would lead most cultivators to believe that mixing races was the cause behind those punishments, but Noah had the memories of the Cursed Dragon species too. He remembered the immense Tribulation that those creatures had to face.
'Maybe, they weren't punished only because of their flames. It might be that the punishment came after the leader failed a Heaven Tribulation to advance to the divine ranks.' Noah's mind wandered a bit, but he quickly suppressed that thought.
He didn't have the power to understand how the world worked, so it was pointless to overthink specific issues. Heaven and Earth didn't try to punish him for creating his darkness element, so he didn't need to hesitate to finalize his cultivation technique.
Noah now had managed to improve the suction force of the Demonic Sword and had found the right procedure to turn primary energy into "Breath". He lacked only a way to connect those two processes.
Of course, Noah knew what he had to do.
The hard part was behind him. Now he had just to apply what he had learnt and made in the past years to create his rank 5 cultivation technique. To do so, he needed a third Will-consuming rune.
Noah absorbed the dark cloud in his sea of consciousness before immersing himself in a long session of meditation with the Divine Deduction technique. He required something slightly invasive to put an end to his long seclusion.
A method soon took form inside his mind, and he didn't hesitate to request other materials before starting to prepare everything he needed.
The rank 5 "Breath" inside his mind went inside the brown sea and came out with the shape of the Demonic Sword. Noah had focused on his connection with his living weapon at that time. That would act as the bridge between his center of power and the blade.
Then, he used his ethereal stomach and his mental energy to create dense dust able to imitate the procedure that he had just perfected. That would set the guidelines for the primary energy entering the rune.
In the end, he imbued the "Breath" with the ethereal dust to create a program with enough power to force the primary energy to turn into his darkness.
It was needless to say that Noah had to repeat those procedures a few times before he managed to obtain a satisfying result. Still, the years spent reassembling primary energy made those failures barely noticeable.
Once he set the rules and the energy, he only needed a solid material for the Elemental Forging method.
Since he had already tested its efficiency during the creation of the Liquid Dantian, his blood was the best material when it came to implanting something in his body.
Noah slowly coughed blood that he accumulated on one of the special buckets that he used when he needed to create a Blood Companion. Then, he fused it with the modified "Breath" inside his mind to create a dark ink that radiated the power of the fifth rank.
The forging succeeded at the first try. Noah's expertise with those materials was simply too high for him to fail at that point.
Elder Jason had delivered the material that he had requested while he was busy with those preparations. It was a dense liquid retrieved from the other world that exuded an awful smell.
That was one of the weapons that the natives used to fend off the magical beasts, and it had the peculiar properties to weaken the bodies of those creatures temporarily.
Noah undressed the upper part of his robe and smeared the liquid on his low-waist. He didn't do that only once. The potion wasn't completely effective since he wasn't only a beast, so he had to spread it on his skin multiple times to weaken that spot.
When his skin and muscles had weakened enough, he wielded the Demonic Sword and imbued its tip inside the inscribed ink.
Noah had performed that procedure so many times that he didn't even need to think about what he had to draw. The blade pierced his skin easily and cut his muscles after some struggles. Noah kept it pointed toward his dantian and began to draw a perfect representation of the base of the hilt of his sword.
After drawing the rectangular outline though, he immersed the blade in the ink again and started to cut the insides of that shape with swift thrusts.
The Demonic Sword didn't like hurting Noah, but it remained silent and let him cut his own body because it knew that the procedure was crucial to him.
In the end, Noah let his weapon go and waited for the skin and muscles of his low-waist to heal. The effects of the liquid worn off eventually and the healing properties of his body fixed the deep cuts, revealing a black, rectangular rune that had an intricate pattern drawn in its insides.
Noah didn't exactly understand what that pattern meant, but he knew that it was a physical representation of the procedure through which the primary energy became his "Breath".
'All the pieces are in place.' Noah thought as he heaved a tired sigh.
He wielded his blade again and inserted the opaque ring that he had stored inside his space-ring in its hilt. The suction force of the Demonic Sword skyrocketed, and Noah promptly laid the base of the weapon over the rune drawn on his low-waist.
When the two of them touched, Noah felt his dantian enlarging again.