Birth Of The Demonic Sword

by Srtyi

"So, that's how my life ends, what a waste of time it was...". These were the last thoughts of a young man, shot by accident in a fight between local gangs. Little did he know that he would soon wake up in another world, a world of cultivation! This is the story of the whoreson of a wealthy family, of a transmigrator that had no purpose in his previous life, of a demon that will

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Darkness. This was his first thought after waking up.

'Where am I?'

He tried to move his limbs but the sensation of touch had something amiss from what he was used to.

'Wait, can I think?'

'I clearly remember getting shot in the chest by those gangsters. Am I in a coma?'

He tried again to move or open his eyes but the only thing he could feel was the sensation of being cramped and the only thing he could see was darkness.

'I guess I'm still alive, seems that I can't even achieve a quick death in my life. Well, at least it's warm in here.'

There was a constant warmth in his body, making the environment quite cozy.

'At least after I wake up my parents will let me off the hook for a while. Maybe I should just take this chance to get away from that house and go abroad, there should be at least a cleaning service hiring me.'

He thought of the possibility of exploiting that near-death experience as a mean to break free from the cage he called home. He considered how his parents would react once he said to them that he will drop the university to be a dishwasher.

'Dad will not make too much trouble for me, but mum will surely go crazy. Nowadays the only thing I can do home without starting a fight is reading. Maybe I will lose that too'

Since he remembered, he loved playing games, reading books and getting drunk. He found anything else boring and this seriously affected his school career since high school. So, the situation in his house grew more and more difficult for him to sustain as his parents would rather yell all the time than accept that the university wasn't fit for him.

'I guess a big part of that situation is my fault, after all, I've spent most of my life being drunk or isolated in some book. Not a good job as a son indeed.'

Thinking this, regret emerged in him. If he knew better at that time, he would've not used booze as a mean to vent and maybe the situation in his family would have been more peaceful.

'Well, I can't change what has already happened, and I didn't really have many options to keep myself cool while pretending all the time'

When he was 14 he figured out that something was not entirely right with him. He would see his friends going after girls or pretty clothing, emphasizing love and social status in a group of people. Yet, he only felt curiosity toward sex without ever being able to really bind with someone. As for human society, he saw it as a bunch of rules created by humans in order to force them to live together.

'Aren't those rules created by men? As a man, I should have the right to ignore them and live the way I want to.'

Time kept on passing while he was thinking, without him noticing that his thinking speed was way lower than usual.

'In the end, it's a world ruled by money. If you have it you can do whatever you want; if not you can only end up in one of the gears of society, accumulating money till the moment you die.'

'What a pitiful way of living. Forced by the rules of humans to work in order to accumulate pieces of paper, while those have value only thanks to the same rules you are obeying. True freedom is only achievable by gathering enough paper. Is there even value on living a life like this?'

His reasoning would stop from time to time as he would sleep or try to wake up his body.

In this way, days passed.

'Maybe I'm in a permanent coma and I will have to wait for true death in order to be freed from this darkness.'

The darkness surrounding him started to affect his mood, the only thing keeping him sane was the warm feeling in his body.

It was at that point that light appeared in the world of darkness, which seemed to get bigger as time passed by.

'Finally a change! I should follow th--'

All of sudden, some kind of compression pushed him from the cramped space he was in towards the light. It seemed to be a slow and painful process of which he felt the pressure. After some time, the world of darkness became a world of light so bright that his eyes hurt. He started hearing some cheers and voices speaking an unknown language.

When his eyes got used to the light he could finally see what was around him: a middle-aged fat woman was looking at him with worry, lightly touching his chest. The strange thing was that her hand seemed to cover his entire body.

'The fuck is happen--'

He could not finish his line of thought that the fat woman already turned him to the side and lightly slapped his buttocks.

For some reasons, he felt pain from that light slap.

'What the fuck are you doing woman?!?'

He said, yet what came out of his mouth was only a shrill cry.

After hearing that cry, the faces of the people in the room relaxed and the fat lady brought the baby to the arms of a pale but beautiful woman lying on an old-fashioned bed.

"It's a boy, my lady, and a pretty curious one, according to the way he looks at everything"

Even though he understood nothing of what the fat woman said, the young man in the body of a baby could easily figure out the situation he was in.

'Am I reborn? Wasn't it a coma?!?'

The woman holding the baby uncovered her chest and attempted to feed him.

'Wai--!'

Before he could say, or rather yell anything, a liquid poured down inside of his mouth and he lost himself in the dizziness of his first meal.

"I will name you Noah, yes, Noah Balvan it's a good name"

Noah looked at the woman feeding him with half closed eyes. The woman had long black hair untied on his back and ice-blue eyes below her thin eyebrows.

'Sure my mother is beautiful. Noah should be the name she gave me, at least it's a good name'

The door of the room opened and a man in his forties with short black hair and a stern face walked directly toward the woman on the bed.

"Lily let me see the child"

Saying so, the man directly took Noah in his arms and raised him in the air to have a better view of the baby. The fat woman and the other two maidservants on the side of the bed lowered their heads at the sight of the man.

Even Lily held her angry voice back at the sight of Noah being suddenly taken away from her chest.

"Mh, a bit pale and skinny but there seems to be some kind of wits in him. Maybe he will not be able to be a guard for the main family but he might succeed as counselor. You did a good job Lily"

Saying so, the man gave the baby back to his mother and moved toward the exit. Seeing this scene, Lily said softly:

"Rhys he's your son and his name is Noah, can't he aim at being more than a simple guard?"

Stopping at the edge of the exit, Rhys turned to look at Lily and said in the most natural manner:

"Even if he has my blood in his veins he has yours too mixed in, the son of a whore should consider himself lucky enough if he can protect the descendant of the main family"

And he went out of the room, leaving Lily with watery eyes hugging Noah. She didn't see the deep stare of the baby in her hands toward his father after he left through the door.

'It seems that this family is not so simple, I should do my best to learn the language of this world as fast as I can'

Thinking so, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

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Five months have passed since Noah was reborn in this world.

It was spring, or at least it seemed so for what he saw of the outside environment. The mansion he lived in resembled a countryside villa from his previous life, yet it had the size of a castle and was mostly made of wood, with a wall made of rocks on the perimeter.

In that moment, he was in the arms of his new mother, peeking around while she was walking through the mansion talking to him. Little did she know that Noah managed to understand most of what she said.

'The language of this world is not so hard, also because it has a lot of similarities with the English of my previous world. Well, it's also thanks to Lily never leaving my side and continuously speaking to me'

These five months were spent by him mostly in his mother's embrace walking around Balvan mansion, with Lily explaining the most random things to him. Thanks to that he had a general idea of his position in the family and how the mansion was structured.

The mansion was divided into 2 rings, outer and inner. The inner ring was composed of a 4 stories building and it was the place where the main family lived; the outer ring had two 2 stories buildings and a 3 stories one and they were respectively inhabited by guards, servants, and guests.

At the moment, they were on the first floor of the guest's building, which was reserved to them since he had the blood of the main family in him, and since Lily was the beloved concubine of Rhys.

Noah's father, Rhys, was the third and last son of the old patriarch of the Balvan family, Thomas. As such, even though they did not get access to the inner ring, they could still live a comfortable life in the outer one.

"You must grow strong, little dear, the people in the inner ring will see you as a bastard and will spare no effort to abuse and bully you, especially the legitimate grandsons and granddaughters of the patriarch"

Hearing this, Noah's mood became heavier.

'I lived a life without meaning, in a world full of compromises and now that I'm reborn I'm asked to endure bullying because of my social status only to become a tool for the main family to use. It seems that I will live another life void of meaning'

Lily kept talking but Noah's mind was away, trying to figure out the best course of action for this life.

'If I stay here I will probably have a lot of benefits, after all, the Balvan family seems quite wealthy. I just don't know enough of the outside environment of the mansion so I can't be sure of the possibilities the outside world has to offer'

Noah was already considering running away from the family. He appreciated the affection and the efforts of this new mother, but these feelings were far from the love he should've had for a parent.

'I already had a family and it didn't go so well. This time I don't have to go through various experiences to understand the kind of person I am so I can always choose the things that suit me the most. If life in the inner circle is too hard for the sole reason of being a bastard I won't mind abandoning the mansion. Plus, I have 25 years of experience in advance and the knowledge of a more advanced world, my possibilities should be plenty.'

From the clothing of the people, the structure of the buildings and the state of the furniture, he could guess that this was a world without electricity, so way behind in the field of technology compared to his previous world.

'Yet, this might be also a disadvantage; my habits are those of the industrialized society and my thoughts are those of a guy from the 21st century, I don't know how the people here might react to some ideas. I must be careful.'

Sometimes thinking about his future, sometimes listening to his mother, the day passed and the night was approaching. Lily walked to a balcony in order to watch the stars appear on the dark sky. Noah used this chance to study the environment outside the mansion. Outside the defense wall, there were sheep grazing the fields, there was a large stone road that started from the main gate of the mansion and stretched in the distance, cutting the green fields into 2 halves. A field of what seemed corn was being cultivated on his right side and a forest was barely visible on his left in the distance.

It was a beautiful scenery, one Noah wasn't used to seeing, and now this was his new world. Then he shifted his gaze to the sky, and he seemed to see the darkness enveloping the redness of the clouds due to the sunset. At the beginning it was like a small dot in the distance, becoming bigger and bigger as it was going in their direction. Only then he realized that something was wrong. The darkness wasn't caused by the nightfall but by the silhouette of something undulating through the clouds.

It was fast and it was getting closer and closer.

At some point, a deafening roar ran through the peaceful countryside. It was coming from the figure in the sky.

A black winged body dove from the clouds diagonally, speeding toward the flock of sheep outside the mansion wall.

It was 7-8 meters long and had big black scaled wings, actually the scales were covering all of his body.

It dove at such a high speed that Noah could not make out the time difference between its exit from the clouds and its nearing to the terrain where the flock was.

Suddenly, the wall illuminated with purple and runes appeared on its surface. It emitted a steady but loud hum and the purple color of the wall spread toward the countryside in the direction of the flock.

The beast seemed disturbed in its descent and tried to halt itself mid-air spreading its wings.

But its speed was too high and it inevitably fell on the ground where the purple halo was going, creating an immense pit.

The moment the purple halo touched the dragon, smoke rose from the pit and another roar, one of pain, sounded in the dusk.

The dragon rose to the sky again as fast as possible and stared with venomous eyes at the mansion. Smoke kept flowing out of his belly like from an open wound. Apparently, the purple halo had injured the dragon.

Filled with hatred, the dragon inhaled and then spat out a tongue of red flames toward the mansion that took the form of a lance as it kept nearing the outer ring.

Lily was frozen in fear seeing the lance of fire coming in her direction while Noah was still too stupefied by what he was seeing in order to even recognize the danger he was in.

Before the flames could reach the outer wall though, a figure appeared mid-air in between them.

He raised his right hand and mumbled something then the lance of flames hit something like a wall of air.

The attrition between the flames and the shield lasted for some seconds before the flames were extinguished and the floating figure was visible again.

He was an old man, with a straight combed long white beard reaching his waist and unbound long hair flowing in the wind. He was wearing a Chinese kimono with large sleeves yet the right one was now burned, showing his slim but sturdy arm.

He looked at the dragon right in its eyes and the dragon did the same.

That standoff lasted for about 10 seconds before the dragon roared once again and turned to leave at high speed through the sky, in the direction of the forest.

The old man waited a bit more in the air over the wall looking at the direction where the dragon went. After being completely sure that the beast was gone he sighed and disappeared.

Lily was still frozen by fear and did not notice that was holding the frail body of Noah too tightly.

This pain was what made him return to reality as he left a small groan to wake his mother from the reverie.

Lily returned to reality too, softening the grip on Noah, and she was about to say something before being interrupted by an aged and deep voice.

"So, this is my latest grandson, am I right?"

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Noah didn't believe in the existence of the soul during his previous life, living was after all about empirics and reality, no place for religious or spiritual thoughts. But after he was reborn, he started considering the idea that there was much more than the eye or the advanced machinery could see.

As he was staring at the old man gently standing on the edge of the balcony, seemingly appeared out of nowhere, his mind fell into chaos.

'There was a dragon appearing and going after a sheep. So this world has dragons in it. Then the wall lighted up and hurt the dragon right? Then the dragon got angry and wanted to burn all of us but this old man, which apparently is my grandfather, blocked it with one hand while flying and then stared at the dragon to make him fly away.'

After a brief sum up the previous events in his mind he only had one thought.

'Where the fuck did I end up?!? This guy can literally fly and fight dragons and they want me to protect them?? Is something wrong with their minds? Wait, if they want me to protect them, it means that I should be able to learn a thing or two.'

His line of thought got interrupted by Thomas entering the balcony and slowly walking in their direction.

"Yes, lord Patriarch. This is Noah, son of Rhys and my own son."

Lowering her head, Lily gently exposed Noah to Thomas in order for him to have a better look at the baby. Maybe Lily wanted to use this occasion to impose a tinge of love in Thomas for his grandson so that he could protect him in the future, or maybe she was just scared stiff at the sight of the old patriarch that she could do nothing else but to expose her son with trembling hands.

Noah, in the meantime, was staring at the old man with fervent eyes.

He didn't even notice the passion and curiosity that his stare was displaying.

'People in this world can fly and fight with fucking dragons! Old maaaan, look at how cute I am! Teach me how to fly!'

But only some sounds came out of his mouth, they resembled words but they had no meaning. So Noah stretched his little arms toward Thomas, in order to appeal to his feelings, putting a face of happiness at the sight of the nearing patriarch.

'You fight dragons but you still love your kin, right?'

Needless to say, the whole dragon incident left a deep impression on him. After all, dragons were only legends in his world and were represented as mighty and unbeatable. While their might was up to fantasies, in this world dragons could be fought, and you could win.

"Oh"

Looking at the baby happily stretching his arms toward him, Thomas could not help but show a trace of warmth on his serious face. Then he picked up Noah from his armpits and stared at him with a slight smile.

"Ooh, he seems pretty interested in me, there sure is some smartness in this child. Maybe he will really become a good counselor of the family. I'll keep an eye on him from time to time"

Hearing this, Lily was ecstatic and hurried to say the most respectful thanks she could muster.

"Many thanks, lord Patriarch. I'm sure that his safety can be assured for life with just one gaze of yours"

She bowed saying so, with both hands forming a praying form.

"There is no such being that could do that. Here, take Rhys' son and bring him back to his room. Today's events are not for a child this little to see"

Thomas handed Noah back to Lily and disappeared from the balcony. Lily could not stop her excitement after he left and kept cheering Noah.

"Have you heard? He will keep an eye on you! The Patriarch of the Balvan family will keep an eye on my son. Hahaha, this is wonderful. And he said that you could become a counselor, this is wonderful too. Not only my son will be protected by a mighty cultivator, he might also be away from the battlefield for life."

As a mother of a bastard son, Lily knew that the possibilities of Noah were not the brightest compared to the other descendants' of the main family so she was suddenly relieved when she heard some insurance from the patriarch.

Carrying Noah back to their sleeping quarters in the center of the first floor, she did not notice that the baby in her arms was silent and that his eyes were growing more and more determined.

'A counselor my ass! What's the point in giving advice to people with such powers. Any problem can just be blasted out like the old man did with the lance of flame! To think that a power like this actually existed! I must get my hands on it. I might have to risk a bit though, it seems that the purity of the bloodline is kept in high regard inside the Balvan family so showing some talent might attract unwanted attention from the main family descendants. Yet, I need some information to really understand what's going on'

From all the books he read, he could imagine that the fight for succession or even the envy of someone with a higher status than him might end up in blood.

'I already died once, and it was by accident. I don't want to be put in a political scheme and end up dead again, being powerless about it.'

A never felt determination ran through his little body, while Lily was preparing to put him in his cradle.

'A world where power is not given to men from the society they created. A power that seems to come from the inside of each individual, a power that belongs only to themselves. Lily called him a "cultivator", I must find something about it. I must learn to walk and read as fast as I can so that I can have some form of independence and at the same time show some early talent in the literature field. It might bring me to books that describe what a cultivator actually is and how to become one.'

From that day on he started eating more and more in order to grow stronger and get rid of the skinny physique he was born with. He started to actively try to walk, first in the cradle and then on the ground, worrying the maidservants or his mother every time he fell from his attempts to stand on his feet. Yet, this kind of pain was nothing.

'A bullet in the chest hurts way more'

And so, only 8 months after his birth, Noah was standing upright on the ground, taking his first steps.

'This is so fucking slow, I need to train for this. I should start running from time to time in order to be more healthy and be more comfortable with my body.'

Even though he was disappointed with how slow he was growing up, Lily and the maidservants were stupefied.

"This baby has been trying to stand up for 3 months and now he did it. Most importantly every time he fell he would not cry but try to stand up again. If we didn't stop him every time he could have gotten a big injury by now"

The chatting maidservants were totally ignored by Lily as a sense of pride enveloped her seeing her baby walking at the age of 8 months.

"This must be the patriarch blessing, I knew something good was bound to happen since that day."

Luckily or not, Noah achievement was pinned to the supernatural character that was Thomas Balvan.

Surprises in the first floor of the guests building were far from over though.

After being sure of having a good balance, Noah took slow and careful steps in the direction of his mother. Slowly but surely, and with a bit of sustain given by the wall at his side, he arrived in front of his smiling mother.

"Come to mummy little one, you did a wonderful job today. Mum is happy!"

Saying this she half-kneeled on the ground with spread arms waiting for Noah to reach her embrace.

Noah looked at her and smiled, then moved with spread arms toward her and yelled at the last moment before the embrace:

"Mommy!"

And then he fell in his mother embrace, while Lily and the maidservants stared at him with wide eyes.

'This should be enough to get me an early education.'

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Time kept passing, and rumors about an intellectual prodigy spread through the Balvan family.

"I heard he was able to talk fluently only one year and a half after he was born"

"I heard that kid started running around every morning before breakfast only three months after he learnt to stand up"

"You won't believe me, but I personally saw that kid going alone in the library of the guests building trying to pull books out of the shelves. Believe me, I was doing the cleaning service there at that time and I found him looking at the symbols on the book as if he could read. And he was only two at that time!"

"That's impossible, his mother requests to get him a teacher got approved two years and a half ago, are you saying that he knew how to read before he even got a teacher?"

"I'm only stating what I saw. I'm not sure he was reading, but he sure looked like he was trying to"

Rumors like these were everywhere in the guests building, spreading from servant to servant. Everyone was waiting for the next record the bastard son would break in his growth speed.

Five years had passed since his birth in this world with him working hard to improve himself and gain a stable foothold in the family.

He kept running every day, adding some light workout in order to make his still frail body less weak. This gave him a slim but rosy figure and he felt his body growing stronger every day. Yet, even if he was stronger than the average kid, he was still just a kid. He would only do half an hour per day of training since that was the limit of his young body. The rest of the day was spent eating large meals made of rice and meat, sleeping or reading.

Two and a half years ago he finally got his teacher, so he could stop sneaking out at night trying to decipher the strange symbols they called writing.

His teacher name was Li Neregnes. He was one of the scholars hired by the main family to instruct their descendant and his position in the family was quite high for a guest. Noah's father, Rhys, accompanied him to the outer ring personally, underlying how much the instruction process should be taken seriously and not as a game.

Apparently, the scholar position was of a higher rank than his in Rhys's eyes, since that was the first time Noah saw his father after his birth.

Li Neregnes was a man in his sixties, with grey hair tied in a ponytail and a short black beard noticeably cured. He had an apathetic face as if nothing was of his interest and explained things in a slow but concise manner. Yet, even this lofty character had to change his disposition toward Noah when he found out that he learnt how to read in less than 6 months of teaching.

After that, he would finish every book the scholar imparted him in less and less time and he even had time to rent books of his interest from the library on the ground floor. The servants were so used to him picking books that they would not even remind him to bring them back.

At the age of five, Noah had a general understanding of the topography near the mansion, of the social status of the Balvan family, and finally, he found something regarding cultivators.

Balvan mansion was situated in the countryside near Evergreen Forest, called like this for the type of trees that forest was made of. The big stone road of the main gate flowed into an even bigger road that led to the nearest big city, Mossgrove, that was ruled by the Shosti family.

Balvan family was an underling of the Shosti family and had to pay an annual tribute of gold or goods in order to keep his rule over this part of the countryside. They were the landlords of the 50 square kilometers surrounding Balvan mansion and had to exact annual taxes from the villages in this area and protect them from the attack of bandits or magical beasts.

Magical beasts! In that world, there were species of animals with the innate gift to absorb energy from the world and using it to empower their natural abilities. The lance of flames used by the dragon years ago was a type of usage of the energy of the world that empowered its already powerful flames, giving them more range of attack and destructiveness.

Finally, about a year before, Noah found a book about cultivation. It was an old and heavy book, written by a cultivator that wanted to spread the notion of cultivation to the common people and that later became a classic of literature. The cultivator's name was lost with the passage of time but the name of the book was still known to all people of culture as "Yin-Yang system".

'According to that book, the energy of nature is called "Breath of Heaven and Earth" and cultivators and magical beasts absorb and store it in order to empower their bodies, prolong their lives and use magical techniques. The "Breath" can be used as a mean to empower the body and the martial techniques or can be linked to someone's own mental energy to release elemental attacks. The 7 elemental types are light, darkness, fire, water, earth, wind and thunder and someone's aptitude to one of these is decided at birth. Generally, everyone has the aptitude toward one element yet the difference in mental energy decrees his ability to manipulate that element'

Noah was currently having a lesson with Li Neregnes about philosophy in a room on the first floor of the guests building, but his mind was constantly wandering on the topics described in the "Yin-Yang system".

'Magical beasts have an innate ability to manipulate and absorb the "Breath" and they will learn to use it naturally in the course of their life, it can be said that their bloodline is quite advantageous according to this aspect. Yet, Heaven and Earth are fair so most of them lack the intellect to better use their gifts.'

'Humans, on the other hand, can make a lance out of rocks and bow and arrows out of a tree but they need techniques in order to absorb and use the "Breath" and even special devices to understand their aptitude toward an element'

'No wonder this book wasn't destroyed by cultivators and managed to survive till now, even if you know the general theory behind those powers you can't do much without the proper techniques. The best this book can do is give a better understanding of the supernatural to normal people.'

'Heaven and Earth are fair he says, yet if you are born in a poor family you can just dream about obtaining techniques. Even for me, born in a family with cultivators, it's hard to say if I'll ever be able to take a look at these magical techniques... Fair my ass'

Even though Li was engrossed in his exposition, he started to notice that Noah would just nod at him in answer every time he would look at him, while his eyes had been staring fixedly at the same point of the book in front of him for one hour.

A bit enraged, Li took a wooden stick from behind his back and trusted at Noah's left arm.

SNAPP!!!

A slapping sound ringed and Noah lifted his head to stare at his teacher while holding the spot where the stick had just hit.

"Are you still thinking about that cultivation nonsense? How many time do I have to tell you: don't waste your time. You are just a bastard of a medium-size noble family, even if the Balvan family had some techniques they are not meant for you. Moreover, literature is the real representation of humans, cultivation is just about killing and getting killed, there is nothing noble in that."

Li berated him, apparently this was not the first time Noah's mind wandered. Actually, it was since he finished the "Yin-Yang system" that he completely lost interest in the instruction of literature. After all, he reached his objective of finding out more about the world of cultivation so these lessons became only a boring obligation.

"But teacher, even the wisest man has to bow his head to the weakest magical beast. If you don't have the power to protect yourself all your knowledge is useless"

SNAPP!!!

Another hit of the stick landed on Noah's right arm. To teacher Li's helplessness, Noah would just hug his arm and let out a little grunt while no trace of fear ever appearing in his eyes.

'What's wrong with this kid, I instructed the son of the patriarch's firstborn and even now that he turned 25 he still fears my stick. This kid though...'

These were the thoughts of Li Neregnes, incapable of taming a five year old kid.

"Nevermind, just go to rest and don't wander in the library all night like your usual. I'll see you again in two days and you will better have forgotten about all that cultivation garbage."

Massaging his temples, he said that while pointing the exit door to Noah.

At his words Noah got up, picked his books, bowed and then left the room.

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Noah's life kept going. His black long hair kept growing so his mother would often comb them for him. Lily kept managing the first floor of the guests building, occasionally meeting Rhys deep in the night. She would often beg him to do more for his son, explaining Noah's interests in cultivation and martial arts but Rhys would always refuse, hiding behind the rules of the main family.

"I can't do anything about him, Lily. The rules are fixed: his position allows him only to get access to the low-level techniques and that is only permitted if he shows some merits in the family guard and completes some mission. You can send him there and see how it goes."

Lily's face darkened hearing these words. Truth was that Noah wasn't spending his time in the library anymore since he had turned 8, he would rather go to the guards building doing chores in exchange for some combat tips.

With the most pleading voice Lily could muster, she asked Rhys:

"Our son is smart, he has already figured out that he can not find anything relevant about cultivation in the library and shifted his attention to the guards hoping to obtain something valuable. He is only 10 now, he must be 13 to officially join the guards, but he has been doing chores for them for 2 years now only to get a better starting point! Can't you give him anything? You did that with your other two sons--"

SMACK!!!!!

A slap hit Lily's left cheek. She yelled lightly and then she recomposed herself in a half-kneeling position with her head lowered and a metallic taste enveloping her mouth.

"Remember your position! Remember that it was me who allowed you to give birth to that bastard and that's only because you can ease the grief I feel for my dead wife. Don't you dare compare the son and daughter Rebecca gave me with the son of a lowly whore anymore. You should never forget that I'm the one allowing the two of you to live."

Trembling a bit, Lily answered:

"I'm sorry my lord!"

And then she completely kneeled with her head touching the ground.

"Tsk, you better stand up and make up for making me angry"

At the same time, in the guards building, a kid about 10-11 years old was carrying 2 large buckets of water to a group of guards sweating under the sun.

This kid was, of course, Noah doing chores for the guards.

Since he understood that he could not achieve anything reading books he started searching for other ways to come in possess of cultivation techniques. Apart from breaking in the inner building and steal the books, which was impossible, the only option he had was to enter the family guards and obtain enough merits to be granted access to the inner circle. His teacher scolded him for half a day before giving up on him and going back to the inner circle while his mother only hugged him and said:

"Be careful"

Even though Noah could see a trace of disappointment in Lily's eyes he could not help but follow his decision. He didn't want to give up and live another worthless and unappealing life now that he saw hope to be more than a normal man.

'Yet, she really loves me. After all this time she still keeps seeing that father of mine. It's probably for my sake that she endures his character.'

Lately, whenever he would go back to his quarters, he would find some new bruises on his mother body and yet, he never saw Lily without a smile when she looked at him.

'I guess I should try a little harder in this life. I don't think I can live happily if I don't do my best to take care of her.'

A slight smile appeared on his face after this line of thought. Sadly, it was interrupted by a guard yelling to him:

"Hey, whoreson, the fuck are you doing smiling like an idiot while still carrying our water?"

He snapped back to reality and hurried himself to the group of guards to deliver the buckets.

"I'm sorry honorable sirs, I hope your training went well. Maybe you want to ease your mind ranting about how hard your workout is, which are the harder positions to maintain, how to--"

"Shut your mouth, the last guy you scammed was sent by the captain to clear the latrines for three months. No one will tell you anything, yet if you like helping us in the usual way I bet that there will be more than one candidate"

The guard interrupted Noah's facade before it even started. He was right though, in the previous two years, Noah managed to obtain some techniques by faking innocence in front of some lonely and tired guard. He would usually choose the ones that seemed excluded or bullied so that he could start some kind of connection with his status as a bastard and then he would ask them to show their forms and techniques in order to be "impressed" and boost their morale.

In the last year though, the higher-ups of the guards building started to notice his true intentions and chose to punish the guards revealing important information. They didn't dare punish him since he was still a young kid and, even has a bastard, he had the blood of the main family in his veins.

As for the "usual way of helping", it basically consisted of the guards hitting Noah a couple of times till he was on the ground as a form of "combat training".

It must be said that the combat training was still Noah's idea after he could not manage to scam any more guards. After all, in his previous life, he had basically no experience in fighting so it had to make up for that.

"I guess there is no other option. Let's go for a round, should be fun."

The group of guards cheered when they heard Noah's answer and started playing some hand games in order to decide who would have been the lucky one to teach that shameless kid a lesson.

In the meantime, Noah went to the training swords deposit to pick a short saber out of habit.

The guards building featured a large courtyard at the center in order to give the guards a spacious and private place to train. Noah only managed to get in thanks to his initial fake innocence and his diligence in doing their chores.

The deposit was on the side of the yard so after a couple of minutes he came back to the group of guards with a steel blunt short saber. The guards were, by then, used to this kid able to wield with quite dexterity the saber with his left hand.

"HAHAHA! Kid today is my turn, I'm still mad about the last time"

The guard standing at a distance from his group was 1.80 meters tall and had a burly musculature. He was bald and had a long curly beard, and hairy chest and bulging muscles. From his shirtless status, you could describe him as the archetype of the perfect soldier.

" Oh come on Micky, it was just a sword form and not even that well done!"

Hearing this, a tinge of anger rose in Micky as he started to get closer to Noah.

"Using weapon won't be fair since you are still a kid, so I will limit myself to these arm guard. I know you are training the Ice-Fire revolving technique so don't expect me to go easy on you."

Micky sprinted toward Noah while using his arms in a crossed guard to cover his head and chest.

Noah went in a position he learnt from a sword style and waited for the right opportunity, shifting his weight on his front leg, ready to sprint at any time.

When the guard was one meter and a half far from him, Noah sprinted lowering himself to dodge the guard's charge and hide from his line of sight. He was basically half the guard height after all.

While he was sprinting he slashed his saber diagonally to the right leg of the guard.

CLANG!

The sound of metal against metal sounded as an arm guard appeared in the saber's trajectory. The guard anticipated his move.

Without waiting any further, the guard pushed himself toward Noah aiming to hit him with his already lowered shoulder.

Contrary to the expectations, Noah did not dodge but twisted his left wrist holding the saber in a strange manner. The saber disappeared for a second only to reappear on Micky's neck without him noticing anything.

'I finally did it in real combat, I guess it's time to lose'

Thinking this, Noah let go of the saber and let the burly man hit him in the chest.

He flew for 2 meters before landing on the ground. Then he kneeled and coughed a bit of blood.

"You are lucky I went easy on you if I used my whole strength you would have been bedridden for at least 6 months."

After that, Micky cheered, happy to have triumphed on a 10 years old kid.

"You are super-strong Micky, now I should go home and rest. Your mighty strength is hard to digest."

Noah said getting up and hurrying towards his building. When he was on the exit he heard the group of guards laughing with an angry yell in the middle of the laughter that resembled his name...

In a room in the guards building, two figures were staring at the courtyard across a window where the group of guards was mocking a bald one.

"So, what do you think of him?"

One of the figures asked the other one

"He clearly won the round but still faked his loss. He is conscious of his position in the family so he tries to lay low as much as possible, yet he can't give up to his search for power. He's surely a genius, the rumors were not fake. I didn't think that he would learn the snake-wrist technique in less than two years..."

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"What is your opinion of him, instead, captain?"

The other man on the window thought for a while and then said:

"If Micky had used a weapon and his full strength that kid would not have had any chances. Yet, he used his age and appearance to his advantage, using our men as training for the few things he learned in these years. He is calculative, manipulative, fearless of pain and of great determination. That incident with the dragon 10 years ago must have twisted his mind to no small degree. To think that a kid can be so relentless in his greed for power scares me a bit"

Silence ran through the room as the two men kept on staring at the guards in the yard. That group, in the end, got bored of mocking Micky and agreed on a round of wine to end the day.

"So, what should we do with him, captain?"

"If that guy is left free like this it's just a matter of time before some major trouble will happen. It's pretty obvious that he will not stop his research for techniques, I just don't know how far he is willing to go."

"So, what should we do, captain?"

The other man repeated. After working together for so many years they had a tacit understanding of how their conversations went. Seeing the captain thinking with his eyes closed he kept silent waiting for his orders.

The captain opened his eyes and with a light sigh he said:

"We train him."

In the meantime, Noah returned to his quarters and found out that his mother was still closed in her room. Light moans could be heard if you listened closely.

He chose to take a bath to wash over the dust from the chores of the day, then he ate an abundant meal and went to sleep.

Around midnight, a servant came to his room to wake him up with a bowl of water. After sending the servant away he washed his face and put himself in a cross-legged position on the floor, breathing in a strange but rhythmic way. Seeing how smoothly the process went, you could see how Noah was used to this process.

His body muscles would bulge from time to time only to return to the normal size with a slight increase of volume.

After about an hour, he woke up from his meditation with traces of sweat on his body.

'The Ice-Fire revolving technique is only a way to strengthen the body through forcibly absorbing yang energy during midday and yin energy during midnight, far from the standard of a cultivator. Plus, my body is now saturated with energy, so my limit is the strength of a 14-15 year old boy until my body grows up and allows me to absorb more energy.'

Then he got up and picked a short metal saber from under his bed. Flicking his wrist, the saber disappeared and appeared in another position from a different angle. After he did this exercise with both his hands for a while he put the saber back under his bed, then he lied on it and fell into deep thought.

'The snake-wrist technique is just a trick to surprise your enemies and finish them in one hit, it's not really worth being called a combat technique. Its usage is even limited by the quantity of "Breath" I can hold in my wrists. The other forms that I learned from the guards are either part of a set or are about weapons that I still cannot wield. What should I do now? The guards are wary of me by now and they won't reveal any kind of information. Do I really have to wait 3 years before officially applying for the family guards? This is way too slow, especially since I can't make valuable progress in these years.'

His stream of thoughts kept going for a while as he started to consider more illicit ways.

'I might steal some books from the guards, but that would require me knowing which techniques are worth the risk, who has them in the form of a book and it also would require me to escape from the mansion after that. There is the death penalty for crimes about cultivation and similar.'

Lily's face smiling to him appeared in his mind, a little grip formed in his throat.

'I don't think I can leave after all. To be more precise, I don't want to leave. Apart from my mother's problem, the technique issue still remains. I know this family has the techniques but I'm unsure of the situation of the outside world.'

Light struck his window, the sun was rising.

'Never mind, maybe I'm being too greedy. I always knew that I would have had to catch up with the lucky brats in the main family at some point. My body is still growing and the Ice-Fire revolving technique can keep up till I reach 18 years of age. In the worst case scenario, I can still be admitted in the inner circle through merits in the guard and scam some of the other descendants of the main family.'

'No, the worst case scenario is me scamming them and being killed out of their anger. Life here is too peaceful, I'm starting to forget my position. I won't be surprised if there is some servant giving information to the inner circle after the display of abilities in my early days.'

"Are you done with your reasoning, I'm getting bored of waiting"

Hearing this voice, Noah's body stiffened as he sprinted to the opposite point of the room toward the exit door. Then he bumped into something and fell on the ground, some blood went down from his nose into his mouth. The object he ran into was the body of the person talking that moved towards the door before he could.

'I can't escape!'

He was ready to turn back and pick the saber up from under the bed when the man said with a nonchalant voice:

"Relax, I'm not here to hurt you. Actually, I think you might like my offer."

After he talked again, Noah stopped and thought for a bit. Then he slowly turned around to take a look at the man.

He looked like an average man in his forties, 1.70 meters of height, no beard and some slightly long blonde hair. He had a playful face and a slight smile.

"Who are you?"

Noah asked.

"I'm the vice-captain of the guards of the outer ring, William Challi. I'm here by order of the captain of the guards, we want to recruit and train you before you make some mess."

Noah was a bit speechless when he heard the words coming out of William's mouth. After a moment of pondering he asked:

"What kind of mess might I ever be able to do, some guards voluntarily gave me some pointers on how I should train."

He put the most amiable smile he could muster, after all, he was still in a 10 years old body.

"Cut the crap, we know that you learned the snake-wrist technique and that you faked your match with Micky. Plus, do you really want to keep scamming soldiers for some shitty technique like the Ice-Fire revolving technique? That thing is just an imitation of a cultivation technique"

Noah went from scared to know that his disguise was so easily discovered to dispirited when he heard that the most complete technique he learned was considered an imitation.

Looking at the smiling man in front of him he finally asked the only question that mattered in his mind.

"Will you make me a cultivator able to fight dragons?"

William was a bit taken aback from the honesty of such a question. He looked at Noah in the eyes and, sensing his determination, he chose to answer in full honesty. He sighed a little and, putting down his smile, he said:

"The road of cultivation is a personal road, people with the best techniques might not reach the level of the patriarch in their entire life, while people with just a simple respiration technique might cleave the sky in two. I won't hide it from you: I can't teach you the best techniques the Balvan family has but I surely will put you on the road of cultivation. Honestly speaking, this is the best bet you will be asked to take considering your position. So, what wil--"

"I accept!"

Before he could finish his speech, William got interrupted by Noah. Looking at him, he could now see that part of that honesty he had before disappeared, replaced by determination and scheming eyes.

'What a frightful kid, I can't lower my guard for even a second'

Putting back his smile, William happily said:

"Then from now on, you must call me Master!"

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The day after he accepted William as his Master, Noah went early in the morning to the guards building as per William instruction.

The previous morning he explained the situation to his mother and, seeing the new bruises on her body, he could not help but feel gloomy.

He entered the building and went straight to the first floor, apparently the men guarding the stairs were informed of his arrival and let him pass without troubles.

Before he put his foot on the last step, he heard the voice of William at the end of the corridor.

"You're early"

Watching the yawning figure that was now his master dressed in a white gym suit he felt a bit of trepidation.

He put up a serious expression and did a slight bow with his left fist in his right hand.

"Disciple was eager to learn, Master"

William didn't even look at him and gestured to follow him. Together they entered a spacious room with weapons on the walls and some wooden dummies sparse around.

Suppressing another yawn, William pointed at the floor:

"Sit, I'm not really good at mornings so I wish to explain everything just once, then you can ask me questions"

Noah almost immediately sat cross-legged on the floor. Yearning clearly visible in his eyes.

William sorted his thoughts for a little and then started explaining with a serious face:

"First, I want to make sure that you understand the reason why the captain chose to let you enter the guards. We can't have people scamming men for their rightfully earned techniques, especially a kid with your position. Weighing the pros and cons of the situation, we decided that it was better to use that greed of yours for our needs rather than punish you. So, remember to thank the captain for allowing you to keep your hands, when you see him."

A drop of cold sweat ran through Noah's back, he finally realized how reckless he was.

'The facade of the kid can't work against powerful people, maybe it's more right to say that they don't care that I'm a kid'

"Second, we won't gift you anything, a guard has to gather merits to obtain rewards and you will be no different but since you are now my disciple I will give you something to start with. Consider it as a loan that you will repay through serving in the guards. Do you understand me? You will have to spill blood for your family to obtain what you want"

William looked at Noah's eyes with probing intention. His situation wasn't exactly a secret, so it was reasonable to question his will to protect the Balvan family.

'I know what he wants to say. He is afraid that since I'm a bastard I might have accumulated hatred towards the Balvan, and use the guards as a mean to strengthen myself only to get revenge. He is not wrong but he totally missed my reasons.'

Looking conflicted and in thought, Noah lowered his head only to rise it with an even more determined face.

"Disciple understands!"

William stared at him, trying to decipher his face.

'If he is lying, he sure is good at it.'

Then he gave up on understanding the kid in front of him and resumed his explanation:

"Then it's settled. You are now the youngest member the guards of the Balvan family ever had. Our duties consist mostly in solving issues with bandits and magical beasts in Balvan's territory since it's the duty of the troops in the inner circle to personally protect the family members. I will explain more about missions later, now pay attention, I'm starting with the part you almost lost your hands for."

Needless to say, Noah's attention skyrocketed.

"You read the Yin-Yang system so I can skip the part about the "Breath" and elements. Human cultivation can be divided into 3 centers of power: dantian, body, and sea of consciousness that are deeply connected to each other."

"The dantian is in your lower abdomen and it's usually formed by the age of 15. It is the place where cultivators accumulate the "Breath" and, once accumulated, it will nourish the body and the mind as a result."

"The body is the shell of a cultivator, it can be nourished by flooding it with "Breath" and the stronger it is, the more stable your dantian and mind will be. You have already started nurturing it with the Ice-Fire revolving technique."

"The sea of consciousness is at the center of your brain and it's the place where your mental energy is generated and accumulated. Enlarging your sea of consciousness will not only give you more space to store mental energy in and raise its production, but it will also sharpen your senses and fasten your thoughts. It is said that at some level you can even start predicting imminent dangers."

"Now, you can start with your first round of questions."

Noah closed his eyes and repeated what his master said in his mind in order to memorize it. After scanning through the pieces of information a couple of times he found two things he was unsure of.

"Master, I have two questions: haven't you said that the Ice-Fire revolving technique is just an imitation of a cultivation technique? If the dantian is formed at the age of fifteen, does this mean that I cannot cultivate for the next five years?"

William's answer was immediate, as he had probably foreseen the doubts coming to his disciple's mind a moment earlier.

"Real body-nourishing methods use the "Breath" in the dantian to flood the body and nourish it. In comparison, the Ice-Fire revolving technique is just a process to forcibly store "Breath" in the body that will be naturally used as nourishment. The difference lays in the quantity of "Breath" used, besides the fact that the technique you practice can only accumulate a tenth of what methods using the dantian can accomplish. Moreover, you can clearly feel that that technique is bound to the physical limits of the body, while real body-nourishing methods can allow you to break those limits."

"As for the other question, yes, the usual age at which a human has completely formed his dantian is fifteen. Yet, as I told you, the three centers of power are deeply connected. Probably you have already sped the process of creation of the dantian up by practicing the Ice-Fire revolving technique. Who knows, you might have gained some months of growth already."

Hearing this, Noah's eyes lit up.

'This means that I can speed the process up by training the other two centers of power. Wait, something is strange, doesn't that mean that when someone trains all three of them at the same time his growth will be exponential?'

A confused expression appeared on his face. Eyebrows knitted together, he looked at his Master and was about to ask more questions when he got interrupted.

"You will understand more once you start practicing. Cultivation is innately an act of defiance against Heaven and Earth since we take its power and make it ours, so the process is extremely long and painful. Therefore, since the three centers of power are connected, if it's true that empowering one will affect the other two, it's also true that leaving behind one will slow the growth of the other two. But as I said, you will understand it once you step on the road."

William then sat on the ground and took out a pile of sheets from beneath his suit.

"I will give you a training method for the sea of consciousness and let you choose a martial art and a body-nourishing method that doesn't need a dantian out of the ones I sorted out for you. These sheets are only the general description of the techniques so come closer and read them carefully. Remember to pick those in line with your personality and needs."

Before he could even put the sheets on the ground, Noah was already sitting on his knees in front of him.

'This fucking kid didn't even run this fast when he was running away from me'

Releasing a soft sigh, William added:

"Take note that you will have to change the body-nourishing method once you form a dantian and that the martial arts use "Breath" to express their true power, so for now you are limited to the one you accumulate in your body."

After the last warning, he laid the sheets on the floor, with body-nourishing on the right and martial arts on the left and watched with a slight smile this disciple of his reading them with fervent eyes. It seemed he could consume them with just one stare.

'He sure has the will of a cultivator, I wonder how far he can go'

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Noah chose to first sort out the pile of sheets on the left, the one having the martial arts.

'Five sheets:

Balvan sword style, a two-handed sword style created by the Balvan family, balanced in both attack and defense, perfect for soldiers. "Breath" will empower the thrust attack, able to shatter rocks. Rank 1;

Phantom saber style, a one-handed saber style made of peculiar moves hard to defend against, good attack and poor defense. "Breath" can make any of the willing body parts disappear in order to catch your enemy unprepared. Rank 2;

Flow of the sword, a two-handed sword style focused on deflecting your opponent's attack and counterattack at the right time, excellent defense. "Breath" can create a shield of air for a period of time. Rank 2;

Twin saber style, a one-handed saber style wielding two sabers, focused on speed, can defend and attack at the same time. "Breath" will enhance the perforation ability of the sabers allowing the wielder to cut without the need for the blade to touch. Rank 2;

Iron palm style, a weaponless style that uses hands as a weapon, excellent attack and maneuverability to strike. "Breath" will harden the hands of the user making them able to stop blades or release a shockwave to hurt the internal organs of the opponent. The hardening of the hands can be permanent with training. Rank 2.'

Noah fell deep in thought.

"Master, why is there a rank on the side of the arts?"

As if expecting the question, William seriously explained:

"The rank represents the potential of the technique when using the "Breath", it basically defines how strong their effect and destructiveness can be. There is a rank for every technique and magic and there is a rank even for cultivators, but I will explain the cultivator's part once your dantian is formed."

Noah started to think again, looking at the sheets in his hands.

'I guess I can already reject the Balvan sword style since it's rank 1. The iron palm style seems cool, especially for the permanent hardening part, but I got quite familiar with the saber in these years so I should stick with it.'

Saying so, only 2 sheets were left in his hands.

'The Phantom saber style should be where the snake-wrist form came from, so I'm actually advantaged in learning this one, but it feels like it's a killing method against men, will a dragon fell for the invisibility trick?'

Like this, only one sheet remained in Noah's hands.

"I choose the twin saber style as a martial art."

William happily smiled and kept on nodding.

"Good choice, since you need to wield two sabers it will be a bit harder at the beginning, but you will soon understand that it is a style which fits every situation."

Noah shifted his attention to the group of the body-nourishing methods. He didn't notice that the smile on William's face had disappeared, being replaced by a worried expression.

'Mh, maybe I expected too much from a group of methods without the need for a dantian. Every technique seems similar to the Ice-Fire revolving one, they just add some peculiarity like more strength or more speed. At least they are all rank 2 so they should be better than my current one.'

He was almost ready to choose a nourishing method that would enhance his speed when he reached the last sheet.

'Rank 3'

The worry on William's face grew, as he stared with pleading eyes at the kid in front of him.

'Please don't choose that one. That is not a technique but pure torture.'

He didn't want to put that method in the block from which Noah had to choose but his captain thought differently so he had no choice.

"William, we have to respect his desires. If he gets in the guards and then finds out that we kept that method hidden from him, he might lose trust on us and revolt."

Such were the words his captain said to him the day before.

'Still, I don't think that a kid can understand the kind of pain we are talking about here.'

While William was lost in worry and thoughts, Noah was reading incredulous the rank 3 method in his hands.

'Forging of the Seven Hells, the peak body-nourishment of the ones that do not require a dantian, it equals the methods that require a dantian in terms of power, so if the user survives the treatment he will obtain a rank 3 body capable of blocking rank 1 martial arts and rank 0 magic spells almost without harm. In addition, since it's a body shaped by the "Breath", it will have a better attunement with it, speeding its recovery and its manipulation. The treatment consists of breaking a fixed number of acupoints in a specific place in order to create an absorption vortex that will force the Breath of Heaven and Earth to enter the body and reconstruct the acupoints. Then the man must rest and let the newly acupoints shape and nourish the body for a period of time. Then he must repeat the treatment 6 times. Warning: extremely dangerous, the user must not lose consciousness during the process in order to manipulate the "Breath" or else there might be an error in the reconstruction process causing permanent paralysis or death. Warning: extremely painful'

Raising his head, Noah finally noticed the worried expression of his Master.

"Master, I think that in order to choose properly I have to understand in a better way the difference in ranks between the different arts."

William tried to hide his worry with a slight smile and said:

"Sure. Try to look at it in this way, the more variables you add into one attack the more powerful it is. The weakest of all is the body, which consists only in a strengthening, like reinforcing a wall. Then comes the martial art, which is a mixture of body and "Breath", so of course, its power will be one time and a half higher than the simple body. In the end, there are magic spells, which use a specific element of the "Breath" you accumulate in your dantian mixed with mental energy to create spells, so they will be the most powerful and destructive. Generally speaking, a cultivator's highest rank is the body, while the level of his cultivation and mental energy is pretty similar. For now, just consider the dantian level as a form of fuel: the higher it is, the stronger its effects will be once used for martial arts and spells."

Noah shifted his gaze back to the sheet in his hand.

'The advantages of this technique are pretty awesome, I just don't know if it's worth the risk.'

"How much does it takes for a man with a dantian to obtain a rank 3 body with the orthodox way?"

William hesitated a bit before answering, and then he simply chose to tell the truth.

"If from the beginning a man trains a method for a rank 3 body, without going through methods for rank 1 and 2, it will take between 5 and 15 years."

"What body level am I right now? How much will it take with the orthodox methods once I get a dantian and while training a rank 2 method in the meantime? How much with this technique?"

A tempest of questions came out of Noah's mouth. If he had to risk his life he wanted to make sure that the benefits were way higher than the dangers.

"Right now, your body is below half rank 1, since your body is still growing and you trained in a method without the need of a dantian the results will be lesser if compared with the benefits provided by the techniques of the same rank which instead need a dantian. The same will go for the rank 2 methods below you. If you start training in one now, by the time you get your dantian you will have a body of rank 1 and a half, so to say, and you will probably reach rank 3 in 5-9 years. If you use that torture instead, it might take you between 3 and 5 years to complete the process."

Noah was a bit stupefied. The orthodox method didn't seem too slow at all. He was confident that with his rigid schedule, he would have achieved the rank 3 body in the shortest possible time, wasting about four to five additional years, but also avoiding such an extreme risk of his life.

He was about to reject the idea of going through the Seven Hells technique when he looked at his Master's eyes that seemed filled with shame. Then he thought of something and asked with a bitter smile:

"How hard is to get a proper rank 3 body-nourishing method?"

This time, shame ran through William for being found out. He lowered his head a bit to recover his composure and then said with a soft voice:

"You must enter the inner circle in order to request it."

Still smiling bitterly, Noah handed the sheet to his Master.

"Then I choose the Forging of Seven Hells method."

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William's fear came true, and he could not help but feel sad. After a moment of reflection, he straightened himself up and walked around the room. Then he started talking:

"I accept your decision and I will help you train in that method but I have some conditions. First, I want you to train your mental energy for six months and if after that time I won't consider you ready I will not allow you to begin the treatment. The second condition is that you will have to train the twin saber style with me personally. Will you accept?"

Noah looked at him a bit confused and rebuked quietly:

"May I know the reason behind these conditions?"

William stopped in place and answered:

"To withstand that kind of pain and still be able to manipulate the "Breath" you'll need a way stronger mind than the average man. If you train your sea of consciousness for some time you will increase your chances to survive the treatment. As for the second condition, I will be practicing torture on a kid and I don't really feel good about it. At least I will vent a little by training you and you might even raise your tolerance of pain during the process."

Noah was a bit taken aback from this answer, especially concerning its last part.

"Master, you don't have to force yourself to do the treatment to me if you don't want to."

"No one from the inner circle will help you do that and the only ones in the outer circle that can use the "Breath" skillfully enough are me and the captain. Yet, my precision in its usage is far better, so I'm the best candidate to perform it."

Noah fell into thought.

'Even though he tried to con me earlier, he's not a bad character. Well, it's either trusting him or going back to scam guards so I don't have much of a choice.'

"I agree"

Said Noah in the end.

"Wonderful"

Answered William, and then he took another piece of paper that was folded from a pocket in his pants. He handed that folded sheet to Noah and then started explaining again.

"Inside that sheet, there is written a rune called Kesier rune after the species of magical beasts they were obtained from. It is said that these beasts had such a powerful mental energy they could squeeze an adult man into a little ball of flesh with a single thought. They were similar to big monkeys and each of their kind had a different number of these runes embodied on their back, the more runes they had, the more powerful their mental energy was. When humans found out that they could use these runes to empower their mental energy, a big extermination begun, and of the Kesier species, only the runes remain now. The method to train the mental energy is the result of years of experimentation on these runes. Nowadays, there are three sets each made of three runes for a total of nine runes."

William paused a bit and then pointed at the folded sheet in Noah's hands.

"That one that I gave you is the first rune of the first set. When you will read it, you will feel a terrible pain in the center of your brain, which is caused by your first interaction with the sea of consciousness. Actually, there is a painless method to interact for the first time with the sea of consciousness but it will take you a week and knowing the kind of masochist you are I figured out that this method will suit you better. Go ahead and try reading the rune, after the pain comes, focus on it to enter your sea of consciousness."

Noah smiled a little at being called a masochist, he was just eager to get stronger, wasn't that the same for everyone?

He slowly unfolded the sheet in his hands till a strand of ink was visible. Immediately, he felt like his head was going to split open. He groaned, enduring the pain and hiding again the rune and then he focused on the origin of the pain.

He felt that he was in another world. The feeling of being on the ground disappeared and there was no smell, only the constant noise of sea waves was present. He opened his eyes and looked around him. He was sitting cross-legged in the air, his figure half transparent. Above him there was darkness, separated from him by a spherical barrier, beneath him there was an azure sea, with slight waves on its surface. After some seconds of pure amazement, he found himself back in the room with William staring at him, it seemed just one instant had passed.

"Master, can you explain?"

Asked Noah completely stupefied by this out-of-body experience.

"You have just seen your sea of consciousness. Consider it a personal dimension, where your thoughts, emotions and mental energy are stored. The bigger that dimension is, the more influence it will have on the material world. The water inside it represents your ability to think, so be careful when you train mental energy or cast spells because it will deplete that water, and once you are out of it, your ability to think will be greatly affected until the sea of consciousness is replenished. You might even faint in that situation and if it happens too often, you can even damage your sphere. Once the sphere is broken, your mind will shatter and you will just be a living body with no will or thought."

William was talking with a really serious face in that moment, it was hard to imagine how many men had shattered their own sphere trying to push their limits or overexerting themselves.

"The training method of mental energy is pretty simple, just memorize the rune. You will know that you have memorized it once the rune appears inside your sea of consciousness like it did on the skin of the Kesier species and looking at it will cause no more depletion of mental energy. Once you've done it you can be considered a rank 1 mage and you can learn your first spells after confirming your elemental aptitude. The ranks of mages go from 1 to 9 based on the number of Kesier runes in their sea of consciousness and they have an auxiliary title based on their rank. For rank 1,2 and 3 it's apprentice mage; for rank 4,5 and 6 is intermediate mage; for the rest of them is high mage. Basically, every wealthy family has a set of the first three runes, Balvan family should have the first five ones, while for the higher ones only the Shosti family or similar high-noble families might have them. Now, enough with the explanations, go back to your home and start practicing the first rune. I will send the twin saber style forms and descriptions to your lodging including another saber. I will see you again in one week from now to check your progress with both of them. Remember not to exhaust your mental energy!"

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Inside his room, Noah was staring fixedly at a piece of paper in his hands. The process seemed hard, as beads of sweat ran down his forehead and his eyes kept trying to close.

'This is fucking hard! Keep going, keep going! Fucking eyes stay open!'

Noah was completely focused on his task and ignored everything around him.

As time went on, his hands started to tremble and his eyes became redder and bloodshot.

Inside his sea of consciousness.

Waves kept surging from the center of the sphere where Noah's half-transparent figure was standing with eyes closed. A deep frown was present on his face.

The waves would crash on the borders of the sphere enlarging its circumference by few millimeters every time. As this process kept going the sea level would lower and by then it was already covering less than a quarter of the sphere.

Noah abruptly folded the sheet containing the rune and let a long breath out while lying on the floor with arms spread open.

'I feel that my head is about to explode! My sight seems confused and even thinking makes the pain increase. Terrifying, this kind of training is terrifying! And I feel so sleepy too."

Some knocks sounded from the door of his room.

Noah cursed a bit in his mind, only to feel again an increase of pain that made him curse again.

He stood up by first leaning against the floor and then against the walls and eventually went open the door.

The figure of Lily appeared on the other side of the exit with a radiant face, carrying two old books and a case.

"Some guards took these to the building. They said that the vice-captain sent the-"

She interrupted herself seeing the state her son was in.

He looked incredibly tired. His face was ashen and his eyes were half-closed and completely red. She noticed how he was using the door as a support to keep himself standing.

She hurriedly jumped on him and put her shoulder below his armpit as support.

She then moved towards the bed yelling:

"What happened to you!? Is that William right? Or is it the guards? I'm gonna talk to the captain right now! I'm gonna-"

Before she could finish her venting, Noah sat on the edge of the bed and raised a hand to stop her from yelling any more than that. His head ached like hell but he forced himself to talk because he felt the need to explain something to his mother.

"Mum, don't worry. It's just a special training that will make me able to do magic one day. I exaggerated a bit because it was my first time doing it but I will feel better after I get some sleep. Don't worry, the guards are nice to me, they don't do anything against my will."

Lily halted from talking anymore and looked at her son. Touching his black hair and looking at those icy blue eyes she felt warm from Noah's resemblance with her. She then sat next to him and hugged him caressing his head.

'This son of mine is so stubborn. His precocity is only surpassed by his determination'

Looking at the kid in her embrace she observed how carefully defined were his muscles and the high number of calluses on his hands. A bit of pride for such a hardworking son invaded her and so she broke the embrace and put him in front of her, hands locked on his shoulders.

"Ok I won't do anything but you must promise to be more careful! I don't want to see you in this pitiful state anymore! And don't work too hard, remember that rest is also a part of the training process. And don't you dare anymore to skip your lunch otherwise there will be consequences! Do you understand me, young man?"

Noah felt extremely warm in hearing these words. But his focus was elsewhere.

'One, two... and that's only as far as I can see'

He was counting the new signs of violence on his mother's body, it was a habit he picked up when he saw the first one appear on Lily, by the time he had requested for a teacher.

"Ok mum, I promise, I'll be careful"

Noah said while forcing a smile.

Lily looked at him for some other time and then stood up leaving the books and the case she was carrying on the bed.

"I have to go now, I will ask the servants to bring you a big meal. Always remember that your health is the most important thing. As long as you're alive you can do anything!"

She then kissed Noah on his forehead and after a last look at him, she exited the room.

Noah kept looking at the direction his mother went, the smile disappearing from his face and his bloodshot eyes acquiring a coldness that he rarely showed to others.

'324 visible ones till now, daddy is increasing his ratio.'

He would only see Rhys entering and exiting Lily's room randomly, never once his eyes went to the son of his.

'It seems that I can only practice the mental energy at night or my mother might see the after-effects of it, I don't want to worry her'

As coldness enveloped him, the pain on his head kept going but he totally ignored it.

'I spent about four hours in the sea of consciousness, I can probably stay for more time if I force myself, I just have to understand the recovery rate with one night of sleep'

He looked outside the window and saw that it was probably still five or six in the afternoon. Then he shifted his attention on the books to his side.

'Twin saber style and Forging of Seven Hells, apparently my Master wants me to get accustomed to the treatment even if he hates it so much.'

He first picked the book describing the saber style and started reading it, ignoring the pain it caused to his head.

'It is indeed a complete martial art and the usage of the "Breath" seems a bit easier than with the snake-wrist technique'

In order to activate the true power of the martial art, one had to move the "Breath" according to a specific rhythm and pattern and then he had to synchronize this manipulation with the correct body movement.

'I can't really train it now since it might do more harm than good but tomorrow in the morning I will definitely start practicing it.'

He closed the book and opened the case, a short saber was inside of it. Its quality seemed to surpass the one he stole from the training yard.

'What a nice saber, William is really taking this Master stuff seriously.'

Then he took a look at the book containing the Forging of Seven Hells method, in the meantime, an abundant meal composed of rice and chicken meat arrived.

Noah ran through the information contained in the book while eating, a bit of nausea due to the strong headache arose from his stomach but he forced himself to eat anyway.

'The Mad Doctor joined and founded at least 12 cults to do his experiments on body-nourishing methods. The cults were responsible for providing for children of age inferior to 13 in order for him to experiment on them. At the end of the process, the Seven Hells method was created but the mortality rate only got lowered from 99% to 85% without considering the after-effects that the treatment caused on the specimens.'

Noah stopped his reading seeing that the night had come and he felt completely drained.

'I'd better go to sleep, tomorrow I'll start training with the twin sabers and I'll probably begin with mental energy late in the afternoon, I wonder if tomorrow I will see some changes from today's training.'

Thinking that he put the books to the side of his bed and the saber back in the case and went to sleep.

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The following morning Noah woke up at dawn, the first lights of the day disturbed him.

He got out of bed and was ready to go wash his face when he stopped in place.

'I had never been disturbed by the first daylight before!'

He entered his sea of consciousness focusing on the center of his brain. When his half-transparent figure opened his eyes he could see that the level of the sea resumed the original level of half of the sphere.

'So one night of sleep is enough to replenish half of the sea! I will test again late in the afternoon for how long I can endure the training'

What he didn't know was that since he was a transmigrator his mind was far stronger than the one of an average kid of his age. Overall, his mental age was about 35 years and the events of both his lives contributed to strengthening his mind even more, so it could endure looking at the rune for far more time than any young man. If a 10 years old child was to look at the Kesier rune for 4 hours straight, his mind would shatter.

When he neared a bowl of water and washed his face, he shivered a little. The water seemed colder than usual.

"Why is the water is so cold?"

He asked a passing servant pointing at the bowl.

The servant put her hand on the bowl and looked at Noah with a confused expression.

"The water feels of the same temperature as always, young master. Is it possible that you caught a cold? Do you want me to call the madam?"

Noah was a bit surprised by her answer but then he thought of something.

'Is it possible that my senses got more sensitive with only one session of training? That shouldn't be so fast right?'

"No, it's fine, keep going with your work."

He dismissed the maidservant and went to eat breakfast.

'I will ask Master when I see him. Now I should focus on the twin saber style.'

He went back to his room, opened the martial art book and picked the two sabers.

He did the same thing he used to do whenever a guard would "give" him a martial form or a technique: closing himself in his room and practice till those movements became a habit.

This time though, he found difficulties in managing two sabers at the same time.

'I guess it's really harder to get used to it, as Master said. I can only practice more until I can use these moves in an actual fight'.

Like this, his day passed by.

Noah went out of his room only to get his lunch and spent the dinner reading the Forging of Seven Hells closed in his room. When he felt that he had digested it was already night. He closed his book and took out the Kesier rune from his clothing. As his most important asset, he would always keep it with him.

He stared at the rune sitting on his bed and kept going until the level of the water inside his sea of consciousness dropped below one-fifth of the sphere then he folded the sheet.

Some retches ran through him but he suppressed them with his eyes closed until they were gone. Only then, he looked outside the window to understand how much time he had spent training.

'About four hours again, even by reaching my absolute limit. It seems that practicing all day has its toll on the mind otherwise I'm confident I could have held for about five hours.'

Even though he had reached the limit his body could withstand, of about one-fifth of the sphere, he stayed in the sea of consciousness for the same time as the previous night. He added another question to the list of those he had to ask his Master once he saw him.

'If tomorrow morning I wake up completely fine too, I will keep going like I have done today. Training all day is tiring and this terrible headache is discouraging but I can hold on! What is a bit of sweat and pain if compared with power?'

Reaffirming his determination, he lied in bed completely exhausted both in body and mind and slept soundly.

In the morning, Noah woke up at dawn again, as soon as he noticed the light on his window.

Checking that everything went smoothly in his sea of consciousness and that apart from some soreness from his limbs he had completely recovered, he chose to repeat the same actions of the previous day. He trained from morning till mid-afternoon in the twin saber style, read the Forging of Seven Hells while eating dinner and digesting it and practiced with the Kesier rune during the night till his body was on the verge of throwing up.

Like this, the day of his meeting with William arrived.

In the same spacious room from the week before, Noah was sitting on his knees looking at his Master standing in front of him. He was waiting for William to finish his yawn before asking him to clarify some of his doubts.

"Master, ever since I have begun training my mental energy I can notice the light of the morning through the window during my sleep. Moreover, everything seems colder or warmer than it used to be and I'm pretty sure I can hear some servants whispering in other rooms if I concentrate enough."

Noah never slacked off in those days and the changes in his perception grew every day more evident.

William was a bit surprised when he first heard that but then remembered how stubborn his disciple was when it came to training. He thought that he should impose more limits on his training habits before Noah hurt himself due to exhaustion.

"It seems that you practiced really hard on the Kesier rune. I remember that when I first started practicing my mental energy at the age of 15 I could not keep going on for more than 2 hours before collapsing. I remember the captain called me a rare genius! Haha, don't worry, as you grow up your mind barrier will solidify and become sturdier, allowing you to train for more time."

Noah was speechless, staring at his Master with wide eyes. William put a proud expression and thought:

'Yes, that's right, your Master is a genius. Are you comparing yourself with me right now, right?'

A slight smirk was on his face as he thought that he had finally obtained some respect from the kid.

'Wait wait wait wait, is he saying that he collapsed ONLY after 2 hours? A rare genius, him? What is the double of a rare genius? Maybe because my mind has already undergone another life it can be considered as a fully formed mind, so I can train for the same period of time of grown-up men while being still 10 years old. Isn't the same as saying that as long as I don't slack off, no one of my very age will ever reach me?'

Noah's mouth became a little dry and then he gulped. Trying to shift the focus of the conversation away from the hours of training he questioned William about another one of his doubts.

"How much did you take, Master, to memorize the first rune?"

William smile grew and said with a proud smile:

"About 6 years, but I could have done it in 5 if it wasn't for the captain always sending me in missions"

'So, if I keep going like this I might actually become a rank 1 mage in 3 years! Maybe the process will be slower due to my still unformed dantian, yet it's extremely good!'

Noah already wanted to drop this talk with his master and go back to his room to train, he was eager to understand what it felt like to cast magic spells.

William dropped his prideful pose and looked at him smiling.

"You have trained in the twin saber style too, right?"

"Yes, Master"

Noah answered, remembering the main reason he had come for that day.

"Do you want to show it to me?"

"Yes, please! Master, don't go easy on me."

Noah stood up and picked 2 training sabers from the wall behind him.

"Don't worry I won't."

William said, putting his left hand behind his back and raising his right one to his chest, the side of the hand pointing at Noah.

Immediately, the atmosphere in the room changed.

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The atmosphere became heavier, Noah felt a little like suffocating.

He looked at the stern expression on his Master's face and gulped, then released a long breath and got in a charging position with both his sabers pointing ahead.

'He is strong, way stronger than any guard I've faced and they are stronger than me already.'

William was unmoving, he didn't even seem to breathe. He stared fixedly at Noah's figure waiting for his move.

'He won't underestimate me like Micky.'

Noah's eyes became full of resolution.

'So I can only charge ahead and see how it goes.'

Once decided, Noah didn't waste any more time.

He charged ahead, in a moment he was in front of William aiming for a horizontal double cut.

A loud THUD resounded in his mind.

"Reckless, what's the point of wielding 2 sabers if then you use both of them to attack against an opponent of whom you know nothing?"

Noah found himself on the ground, his left shoulder hurting.

'I didn't even see his attack'

"Again!"

William ordered. Noah stood up pointing with his right arm and went back into an attacking position.

Then he charged ahead again but made a feint before entering William's range of attack and twisted to his left slashing with his right saber, the left one was held still to cover his head.

THUD!

"A feint can only work if your ability to perform it surpasses your opponent's ability to see through it. Again"

This time it was his right leg to hurt. Noah slightly sensed something after he made the feint but it was too fast for him to react and so he ended up again on the ground.

Like this, the day went on.

THUD

"If you use a jump attack on someone faster than you, you are just cutting off your road of retreat."

THUD

"Whenever you try to use your height to your advantage, your opponent will do the same with his peculiarity."

THUD

"Aiming for my blind spot was smart but I'm a cultivator! I don't have blind spots because I can clearly sense you with my mental energy."

THUD

"I'm almost moved by your perseverance but even throwing your saber won't work"

THUD

"You sure are stubborn but that won't get you anywhere until you understand today's lesson"

THUD

This time William didn't speak, he just looked at the kid full of bruises in front of him. He was pointing with trembling hands and legs at the floor with his sabers. His breath ragged and his whole body full of sweat, yet his eyes were still staring at William with fervor.

"And... Cough... What would be today's lesson about?"

Asked Noah confused.

"Tell me, my disciple, what can you do against a faster, stronger opponent that you cannot outsmart?"

Noah lowered his eyes and thought for a long time, then he answered with a questioning tone:

"Nothing?"

William half-smiled sighing softly.

"Quite but not totally right. The only thing you can do is giving up. You must understand that sometimes you simply can't win, even if you put your everything on the line, no matter how unfair it can be."

Noah looked at his Master's smile. He had nothing to say, he was right.

"Today I wanted to make you understand this and also train you a bit, but your stubbornness carried on for three hours so it's better to call it a day. I'll see you again in a week at the same hour and in the same room. Now go to rest and don't do works that require your body."

And then, William left. The atmosphere relaxed and Noah could not hold on the sabers anymore and fell on the floor. He coughed a couple of times and then went in a cross-legged position.

"Fuuuuuuu"

He strongly exhaled with his eyes closed and then tried to resume a normal rhythm of respiration.

A smile appeared on his tired face.

'He is incredibly strong! From start to finish I never saw his movements and only sensed them a little. This mental energy stuff is incredible, a cultivator is incredible! I wonder if he would be able to stop a bullet from my previous world. Hahaha, I love this! The more I see a cultivator the more I want to become one! So much strength in just one man! A hand to stop 2 swords, a hand to stop a dragon! I want to train more, I want to get stronger, I want to forge my life with my own power! Who cares if I die again, this is the first time I feel so alive in two lives!'

Then, the image of Lily appeared in his head and his smile became more complicated.

'I guess I should first solve her situation otherwise I won't be at peace'

The smile disappeared and he opened his eyes, resolution was literally pouring out of his expression.

'Either way, I need strength to do both things, so my course of action can only be more training.'

He stood up with difficulty and carried himself back in his room. He ate a large meal and studied both the manuals till after dinner, then he carried on looking at the Kesier rune.

The next morning, he woke up with his body hurting all over the place but he didn't care. He stuck with his schedule with even more passion. Steadily but surely, he was becoming stronger.

The next week he arrived even earlier at the appointment with William. This time he actually had to wait for his Master to come.

When he entered the room he looked at the disciple staring at him with expectations and could not help but to shake his head.

'And here I thought that he learned something last time.'

He yawned shortly and then took a wooden stick from the wall behind him.

"Today we will exchange defense and attack and I will point out every mistake you make by hitting you with this."

He pointed at the wooden stick in his hands.

"Come on, start attacking me."

Noah hurriedly stood up and took two training sabers. Then he directly charged at William with his sabers crossed in front of him.

THUD

The tip of the stick hit his head as he fell back in guard.

"Your body must be more crouched to use that type of charge so to protect your whole upper body. Again"

Noah tried again with the same charge but following his Master's advice this time.

THUD

The stick struck the point where the sabers crossed and pushed them back on Noah's chest.

"Put some strength in those arms. How can your weapons protect you if you let them hit your body"

And so, Noah charged again.

THUD

The stick hit the same spot as before but this time Noah held on and deflected the stick entering William's guard but when he was about to strike he heard a voice coming from behind him.

"That wasn't bad, now try with a different form."

The William in front of Noah had disappeared and reappeared behind him.

Noah looked at the smiling figure behind him and shook his head to suppress any thought of cursing him.

This way the morning passed by with William perfecting Noah's technique.

"Today has been good, see you next week."

Noah was in a pitiful state but this time managed to make a bow before his Master exited the room. He was really grateful for the time William was investing in him, and that day he really did some great progress. He could not wait for seven days to pass!

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Life went on peacefully in the outer ring of Balvan mansion, the only peculiar thing was a little kid going to the guards' building every week.

At first, he would always come out of the building full of bruises but as time went by, the wounds on his body diminished and a faint pressure was created around him.

That day, that same little kid was seen early in the morning again as he marched towards that guards' building.

'It's been two lessons since I last got hit. I wonder if in today's sparring Master will raise his level again.'

Since his second lesson, William had kept on engraving the forms of the martial arts on Noah's mind. After 3 months of conditioning, his techniques were nearly perfect in their execution so his Master chose to raise the level of the training. They started to spar freely as William would hold himself back only to raise his level when Noah managed to consistently hit him. By that time though, the condition was fulfilled twice already by Noah but his Master would still not raise his level.

Entering the usual room, Noah was surprised to find his Master sitting cross-legged on the floor waiting for him.

No traces of his usual sleepiness was present as he was staring at a fixed point of the room with vacant eyes, probably in deep thought.

"Master, you're early!"

William's eyes regained its focus as he stood up and looked at his disciple with a complex expression.

"Can you use the "Breath" in your style?"

Noah was taken aback by this question.

Since the "Breath" in his body was limited, his Master always forbid him to release it during their spar or his personal training. Noah's schedule was always so full that he could not find the time during his day to refill it with the Ice-Fire revolving technique. His Master knew this, so he chose to forbid its usage and let it focus on nourishing the kid's body. As such, Noah only manipulated it during his training, without ever releasing it. Today tho, things seemed different.

"I think I can, even if I have never used it in an actual fight I should get the hang of it in a couple of tries. Why is that?"

William did a light smile as a bit of warmth leaked from in his expression.

During these months he began to understand his disciple better. He would always smile and speak seemingly without thinking too much but he knew how things really were. Noah was ruthless, he treated his body and mind like a piece of metal going through forging. If the body would not bend he would hammer it till it did, no matter how much pain he would suffer in the process. If his mind was weak, he would heat it till its effects would reverberate to the body, causing a constant nauseous feeling lingering on him.

He knew how much Noah trained and how determined he was in his search for power, so William could not help but give birth to some kind of affection and even respect for him.

'This kid says that he might do it in a couple of tries, does he know how much does it usually take to do it? What a pity, if his position was different he could have taken things slowly and have a bright future, with his talent and perseverance it's just a matter of time before he even surpasses me. Yet, the guys in the inner circle will never allow someone from outside the family to become too strong, especially someone that might have reasons to get revenge on them.'

The complicated expression on William's face became more evident as he exhaled a sigh.

"Do you know how much time has passed since our first meeting?"

Noah thought for a little and then realization dawned upon him.

He was so engrossed in his training that he forgot about the passage of time but when his Master asked the question he understood.

"That's right, almost six months have passed and your progress with mental energy have long surpassed the standard I had set for you. Next week we will begin the treatment, so the "Breath" in your body is not that useful anymore. It's better to start with the real martial art so to have some advantages if you manage to survive next week."

Noah's expression became serious.

'The time has indeed come, the life I was living was too perfect to continue, I almost forgot that all my training will be useless if I don't push my body to the next level.'

Thinking this, he went to the usual wall to pick 2 sabers as he stared at his Master with resolution.

"No reasons to waste time then, right Master?"

The slight smile on Noah's face was a blow delivered to William's mind.

'Doesn't he really care about death?'

He shook his head to repress the thought and took the usual wooden stick and pointed it at Noah.

"Then come at me like we always do, but this time try to mix some "Breath" attacks in the spar. You should be able to do three or four of them before the "Breath" in your arms depletes."

Hearing these words, Noah waited no more. He swiftly charged at William with his body crouched so low it seemed he would fall on the floor anytime.

When his Master entered his range of attack, he thrust both his sabers in a diagonal uppercut infusing "Breath" according to the art's instruction.

Yet, his timing was a bit off and the result was only a simple double uppercut that William blocked easily positioning his stick horizontally.

"Almost, again."

Noah rushed again, this time in a cross-slashing position but the result was the same as before.

"Concentrate! You can do your forms almost perfectly and I know you can move your "Breath" according to the instructions, you only need to synchronize them!"

William knew that the process of synchronization wasn't so easy as he said but wanted to increase the pressure on his disciple. The only thought in his mind was how to increase the chances of the survivability of his disciple. He wanted to increase his handling of the "Breath" even of just a little before the treatment.

This time, Noah didn't immediately rush to attack him but closed his eyes to sharpen his mind, his only thought became the rhythm of the twin saber style.

When he opened his eyes he was ready for the last attack.

He slowly exhaled and then charged at William with a horizontal slash.

William mentally nodded and received his attack.

A piece of wood fell on the ground, it was half of the stick in William's hands.

William stared astonished at the saber laid on his throat.

'That... That's a perfect execution! I aimed for him to slightly dent the stick, never would I imagine that he could cut right through it with some blunt weapons!'

Noah realized the situation he was in and hastily retracted his sabers. Some sweat was on his face and back, apparently using a martial art synchronized with "Breath" was way more tiring than what appeared.

"I'm sorry Master! I didn't realize I could actually cut through it, luckily I stopped myself at the last moment."

William cleared his throat and touched the spot where the saber was lying just the moment before.

"Don't... Don't worry, it's fine. Do you think that your Master is so weak that a mere disciple could hurt him? Hmph! I have a rank 3 body, do you think that a martial art of rank 2 powered with your poor "Breath" can actually-"

He had to interrupt himself seeing Noah pointing at his throat. A drop of blood was slowly falling from there.

"You wretched disciple don't be so smug about it!"

Noah could not help but laugh a little when he saw his Master lose his cool but then William calmed himself and looked seriously at Noah.

Noah understood that it was the time for his last instructions before next week so he listened attentively.

"Next week don't climb the stairs for this floor but wait at the bottom of them, I will meet you there. I will perform the treatment in another place, after all the screams of a kid are not the happiest sounds to hear."

Noah gulped when he heard the word "screams" but then focused again, he had already decided to put his life on the line.

"If you survive, you will probably spend a week bedridden in order for your body to get used to its new acupoints, so remember to inform your mother about it. The day before the treatment don't practice anything, and I'm talking seriously here. The only thing you are allowed to do is rest and read the tome about the Forging of Seven Hells, your condition must be at the peak when you undergo the process."

William looked again at Noah, smiling this time.

"Now go, sharpen your mind even more if you can. Next week it's life or death."

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When he went back to his room, Noah felt tired.

Even if the meeting was short and only half of the morning had passed, the depletion of "Breath" from his body caused tiredness to envelop him.

'To think that with just that little "Breath" that I have I can make a blunt weapon cut, I wonder how much more powerful the twin saber style can be with an actual dantian. It's understandable why cultivators give so much importance to the dantian; if it can accumulate a higher quantity and quality of "Breath" every technique will be exponentially more powerful. The difference will be really too big.'

Sitting on his bed he engraved the sensation of the execution of his last attack.

'That sharpness of mind must be my normal state from now on, no! It must be my starting point! I can't only rely on the sheer quantity of my mental energy, I must also refine it in an orderly way in order to speed up my thoughts and my learning process.'

One of his biggest secrets was that his mental energy was progressing at an astonishing rate, in these 6 months since he started training it he raised the time he could stay in a training session by half an hour. The effects of this increase were evident as he would learn faster every lesson his Master imparted him and his ability in manipulating the "Breath" became more precise and smooth.

Inside his sea of consciousness at the center of the sphere, there was a slight disturbance in the space above the sea. It seemed that something was about to appear but could still not consolidate itself.

'During this week, I must completely focus on the Forging of Seven Hells and on increasing my mental energy. Training in the twin saber style will be used as a form of rest when I need to take a break. I can't lose any more time.'

Deciding himself on the new schedule for this week he immediately got to work and used all his attention to read and memorize the body-nourishing method.

At night he practiced hard on the Kesier rune.

In the morning he spent some time in meditation, trying to maintain the sharpened state his mind experienced with his Master, then he would practice the forms on the twin saber style for about 2 hours. The rest of the day was dedicated to the memorization of the nourishing method and the night was used to increase his mental energy.

Like this, days went by till the day before the appointment with William.

As per instructions, Noah didn't practice the martial art nor trained with the Kesier rune but spent the day reading the Seven Hells tome and focusing his mind to sharpen it.

During lunchtime, he went to see his mother.

Noah lightly knocked at his mother door saying with a firm voice:

"Mum it's me, I have something to talk to you."

After some moments, the door opened and Lily's figure appeared with a radiant smile and said:

"It's so rare of you to look for me, I believe that if it wasn't for your need to eat you would spend all your time training."

Noah instinctively looked at her body before focusing again his eyes on her face.

'Four more since the last time I saw her.'

His father was growing more violent as time passed, and Noah had the sensation that it was linked with his success in entering the guards.

"It is actually about training. I will go on a special training with my Master tomorrow and he said that it will take a week or so for it to be completed. So I'm not coming back here starting tomorrow."

Lily instantly got worried and wanted to ask more about this training but then realized that her son had somewhat changed. His eyes were more focused, his presence was more imposing, he seemed like a rock standing in a river constantly resisting the flow of water.

She knew her son. She knew that he had decided to take part in this training and that nothing would make him change his mind, so she limited herself to touch his cheek and ruffle his hair a bit.

"Promise me that you won't do anything reckless or dangerous."

"Don't worry mum, my Master will be with me all the time and he is really strong so there is no real danger that can affect me."

"I don't care, promise it to me anyway"

His mother plea was resolute and unmovable.

"Ok mum, I promise, I'll be careful"

He lied as her mother kept on staring at him. Then she hugged him and adjusted his clothes a bit.

"Then you are free to go but remember not to force yourself too hard, the job of a mother is to take care of her children while they are still young after all."

Back in his room, Noah was inside his sea of consciousness.

He was not training, he was simply focusing all of his mental energy on the treatment of the following day, reviewing the various steps and setting his mind for the task.

When he thought that it was enough he left his mental sphere and laid on his bed.

'Now that I lied to her, I really can't allow myself to die.'

And then he went to sleep.

The following day he went to the appointed place where his Master was already waiting for him with a stern face.

He lightly nodded seeing the focus and determination in Noah's eyes.

"Do you have some questions before we move?"

Noah thought a little and then asked softly:

"Is the place where we are going really soundproof? No one will hear me right?"

'Shouldn't he worry about his life? Is he worried that his mother might hear him?'

"Yes, the place where we are going to is the underground prison of the outer ring. We are used to keeping and torturing prisoners there and no one has ever noticed. Even some of our men don't know where the place is so you can rest assured."

Noah nodded, erasing the last doubt from his mind.

"Then I'm ready."

William nodded and then started moving toward the bottom of the corridor.

"While we go there I want you to repeat the procedure to me, so I will be sure that you won't make mistakes."

Noah started explaining:

"The Forging of Seven Hells is a treatment consisting of destroying seven acupoints on the back of the specimen in order for the body to naturally create an absorption whirl that will accumulate the Breath of Heaven and Earth on his back. Since the absorption process is chaotic the specimen must be conscious during this process in order to direct the "Breath" in the place where the seven acupoints were destroyed and reconstruct them with a mixture of their leftovers and "Breath". The specimen must also use his mental energy to hold together the newly created acupoints until they solidify and connect completely to his body. The last step is to endure through the transformation the new acupoints will cause to the body of the specimen and then wait for his new body to be completely filled with "Breath" in order to go through this process for six more times."

William stopped at the end of the corridor and tapped on the wall in front of him in seemingly random points.

The wall then went back on itself and slid to the right showing a dark and rocky passage that went downward.

"We are almost there, now explain to me the dangers and advantages of this method."

Saying so, he started walking through the passage and Noah followed.

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"The biggest disadvantage is the high mortality rate of the treatment since one mistake in the process might cause the specimen to die. Then there is the difficulty of the process since the specimen must actively control the "Breath" while his body is being destroyed and reconstructed. There is also the problem that the destruction process can't be made by the specimen itself since the acupoints are on his back and there is the need for a skillful helper. The specimen can't, also, practice any different body-nourishing method before finishing the seven cycles of the treatment since the acupoints on his body are still fragile and can't withstand any different process of nourishment. Last is the worthiness of using such a process since the specimen can just wait for his dantian to be formed and then use an orthodox nourishing method instead of risking his life. It is said that the Mad Doctor, the creator of the method, had his dantian severely damaged but didn't give up on cultivating and that's why he came up with this method."

Noah kept explaining while he was following William down the rocky passage, his Master would only nod every time he finished a sentence.

A sound came from behind them as the source of light was cut, it was the wall closing again by itself.

Only then Noah noticed some little lights at the bottom of the passage that were wooden torches fixed on the walls of this cavern.

With his already quite strong mental energy, it was not a problem for him to keep going down even before his eyes got used to the darkness.

"The greater advantage once completing all the seven cycles is that you will obtain a rank 3 body extremely sensitive to the "Breath", so it will enhance your usage of martial arts and vastly strengthen your senses. The reason the body can be considered of rank 3 is that after seven cycles the quality of "Breath" will equal a dantian one so the level of nourishment will be the same. Furthermore, differently from any other nourishing technique, the Seven Hells method doesn't need meditation using forms or postures to refill the "Breath" in the body because the acupoints created will continuously keep on absorbing "Breath" according to the cycle the specimen is in, until the body is full of it. At last, when the treatment is over, the body will work like a smaller dantian, so the cultivator's absorbing process will be faster and his storage space will be bigger. It is to underline that most of these advantages will diminish in effectiveness once the cultivator steps on a higher realm."

While Noah was speaking, they passed a number of metal cells, mostly empty. Only some of them had chained people inside. They were no more than skin and bones.

After some time they turned right and passed through a metal door, entering a room full of torture tools.

William pointed at a rusty metal table with metal handcuffs on both its sides.

"Take off the upper part of your clothes and lie down with your belly pointing the ground, I will tie you to the table and give you some piece of cloth to bite. Then we will begin."

As Noah was about to take off his clothes, William put a hand to his shoulder and asked hesitantly:

"From now on there is no turning back, this is your last chance to stop yourself from doing something you might regret."

Noah smiled a little seeing how concerned William was and honestly answered:

"There has never been a way back for me Master, not since this bastard, son of a whore, had the stupid dream of becoming strong."

Then he undressed and with his half-naked body he lied down on the metal table with spread arms and legs and his back pointing at the ceiling.

William felt a bit of pity.

Heaven and Earth were fair to everyone giving them talent and methods to become strong, yet humans were greedy and monopolized the methods in order to obtain even more power.

'If it's power you seek, you must serve under those that can teach you how to obtain it. I wonder what would have I done if I were in this kid's situation'

Observing this 10 and a half year old kid lying on the table used to torture prisoners, William steeled his resolve and got near to him.

First, he chained both his arms and legs to the handcuffs and then he took a piece of cloth from inside his sleeve and put it in Noah's mouth.

"I'm going to begin, I will destroy the seven acupoints in the order described by the Mad Doctor then you will be on your own. Good luck."

William put his hand on Noah's back and concentrated.

He scanned the body searching for the precise position of the acupoints and, once he found them, he gathered seven slivers of "Breath" from his dantian and inserted them on the boy's back.

"I'm gonna start."

Noah tightened his grip on the chains ready for the wave of pain.

CRACK

The first sliver of "Breath" detonated destroying one acupoint with it.

An indescribable pain ran through Noah as he let out a scream through the piece of cloth in his mouth.

"GHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He felt his back shattering as he convulsed as to try to run away from the pain inside him.

William remained impassible since he knew that he could not lose his focus on the other six slivers of his "Breath"

"Now two more!"

He yelled.

CRACK CRACK

Two more slivers detonated destroying the corresponding acupoints.

This time Noah felt as someone was using a hammer to keep on smashing his already broken back.

Even while he was screaming and convulsing, Noah repeated the same simple sentence in his mind.

'ENDURE IT! ENDURE IT! ENDURE IT!'

His entire focus was on staying conscious, during this process his extraordinary progress with mental energy showed its fruits.

But William could not wait for him to get accustomed to the pain.

"Three more!"

CRACK CRACK CRACK

Noah stopped trying to control his body, or to say it better he could not control his body anymore.

If it wasn't for William holding him down on the table he would have probably torn his own hands and feet out from the shackles.

Traces of blood appeared on the cloth inside Noah's mouth as he kept on screaming without an end.

He entered a frenzied state where he could not understand if he was thinking of something or yelling it. Yet, the sentence in his mind was still the same.

'ENDURE IT!'

"Last one!"

CRACK

This time, the pain didn't increase but a familiar feeling dawned on him.

'Is this... death? So it's a race between the death of the body and the reconstruction of it! Bring it on!'

The whirl was being created and William kept on holding down Noah's body in order to let him focus on the reconstruction.

Through all the pain and the feeling of his body dying, Noah finally felt the presence of the "Breath" on his back. It was being accumulated at high speed and was lingering over him.

'Now!'

Ignoring all other sensations, he solely focused on the "Breath" drawing it towards the seven places where his acupoints once were.

The "Breath" entered the now empty spaces and accumulated until they were full.

After the spaces were full, Noah used the remaining "Breath" over him to close off the space around the new acupoints waiting for them to form.

Little by little, the "Breath" mixed with some bone shards started to solidify and to link themselves to his skeletal and circulatory systems.

Another wave of pain assaulted Noah as the newly acupoints forcefully fixed themselves on the already existing parts of his body, but he was ready for it.

He kept holding on with his life slowly sliding away, going toward a darkness that he knew too well.

Then the first acupoint ended its solidification process and completely fixed itself within Noah's body.

A wave of strength ran through him as the acupoint started working.

Then it was time for the second one, and then the third, till all the seven new acupoints started working properly inside Noah's body.

He held on the barriers he created to isolate the process for fear of something going wrong but feeling the darkness getting further and further away he started to relax and slowly released his concentration.

With this new life invading his body, drowsiness took control of him as he fought to stay awake but at that point, William held his head and said with a whisper:

"It's ok, you did it. You can rest now."

Noah's last mental resistance fell hearing these words and he collapsed unconscious on the spot.

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When Noah woke up, he found himself in an unknown room lying on a bed.

His mind was foggy and he tried to turn his head to have a better look at the surroundings.

Immediately, a wave of pain came from both his back and head resulting in a grunt from the young man.

"You'd better not move, only two days have passed and your body still needs to recover. Your mind was exhausted too so you'd better not think of using this time forced in bed to train."

William's voice sounded from the side of the bed, he was holding a book as he casually browsed through its pages.

"Did the treatment succeed?"

Noah asked with a low voice.

"You really don't have anything else in your mind, do you? Yes, everything went well and as the nourishment of the first cycle goes on, you will break through the barriers of the rank 1 body and stabilize in its early stage."

William closed the book and took a basin full of a green liquid from a nearby table.

"Drink this, it will work as a meal and speed up your recovery process."

He held the basin on Noah's mouth and slowly poured the liquid inside paying attention not to make him suffocate.

A cold sensation invaded Noah as he forced himself to drink the soup, ignoring the pain he felt from gulping.

When he was done he felt sleepy again.

"I think I will sleep some more time, Master."

Then he closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep.

William shook his head but a smile was ever-present on his face.

'The treatment was actually worse than I thought but he handled it well. Such determination and mental energy, I feel blessed having such a disciple.'

William sat down on the chair on the side of the bed and picked again the book he was reading. He wasn't going to leave his disciple's side until he was fully recovered.

It was only three days later that Noah was finally able to stand up from the bed on his own, though with a bit of effort.

William was still on his side and could not help but feel amazed.

"In only five days of rest, you can already stand up, the advantages of the Seven Hells method sure are amazing. Even your mental energy completely recovered yesterday, I believe that in another day you might be almost at full strength."

Noah was trying to feel the changes in his body while he was standing, he clearly felt the absorption force on his back that was constantly providing "Breath" to his body, speeding its recovery process.

"It is indeed wonderful, Master. I think that after my body is fully recovered and the "Breath" focuses on nourishing it, my strength will exponentially rise!"

William shook his head and realized that it had become a habit of his since when he started his lessons with Noah.

"For now just focus on your recovery and on getting used to your new strength, from next week onwards we are going to spar using the "Breath" every session since its replenishment won't affect your free time anymore."

Since he said that, Noah became excited and wholeheartedly focused on resting.

The following day, Noah went back to his lodging and was overwhelmed by his worried mother's questions.

After managing to hide the dangerous parts and eating more than he ever had in his life, Lily let him free to go back to his room, satisfied with the time she had spent with her son.

Noah's life went back to his previous rhythm with the only difference being his weekly training sessions with his Master becoming more heated.

They would spar all morning and Noah's usage of the "Breath" synchronized with the twin saber style grew in ability with every session, with his Master addressing his fast improvement to the Forging of Seven Hells method.

Yet, his biggest progress was still his mental energy.

By that time he could train with the Kesier rune for five hours straight, apparently his mind got stronger after holding on against the pain of the treatment.

'It seems that the experiences one goes through in life can strengthen the stability of the sphere in the sea of consciousness. The more stable one mind is the more it can endure its exposition to the rune.'

Noah realized this after another night of training in the mental energy.

Two months had passed since that day in the torture room, and he felt that his body had reached some kind of limit, yet his seven acupoints kept on absorbing "Breath" so he tossed the idea of undergoing the second treatment away.

His head hurt, like every night after he stared at the rune for many hours but that pain could not make him flinch anymore.

'After surviving that day, I'm afraid my concept of pain got a little twisted.'

He smiled lightly and then went to sleep.

Early in the morning, when the sun was yet to rise, he abruptly woke up feeling some uneasiness in his body.

He stared at himself and noticed that his pores were secreting some black substance that had a nauseous smell.

Not knowing what to do and thinking that it was an after effect of the Seven Hells method, he hastily jumped outside the window in his room and ran toward the guards building, falling from the first floor only caused him a little discomfort as he activated the "Breath" in his body to reinforce his lower body.

He ran way faster than he had ever done in his life, but he was too worried to notice it.

When he arrived at the first floor of the building he hastily called for his Master.

"Master, help! There seems to be a problem with my body."

William was a cultivator of the age of 41. He had cultivated for more than twenty years. A person like him would notice when someone ran near his room but would usually ignore it since he loved to sleep.

Today though, he was forced to wake up listening to the call for help of his disciple.

He hastily left his room and looked in the direction of the voice.

Noah was covered from head to toe of some black liquid that had a terrible smell.

From his expression, you could see how worried he was.

William, seeing him in that state, smiled at first but then got a bit angry at himself.

'Shit, I totally forgot to explain it to him. If I told him earlier I could have kept on sleeping. Well, how could I know that it would have been so soon.'

He yawned and then rubbed his still sleepy eyes.

Seeing the relaxed attitude of his Master, Noah calmed down a little and patiently waited for an explanation.

"So what's the problem?"

William said a bit irritated.

Noah was surprised.

'Isn't it obvious?'

He thought.

"Ehm, I woke up in the night with this dirt coming out of my body. Could you please explain what is happening to me, dear Master?"

William put a surprised expression and acted like he didn't notice anything until Noah mentioned it.

"Oh that. Well, your body advanced to rank 1."

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"Eh?"

Noah was first surprised, then happy.

Only now did he inspect his body. His 7 acupoints where absorbing "Breath" at full speed and the limit he felt last night disappeared. His body felt light but was sturdy and full of strength. He also seemed to have a better perception of the "Breath" inside his body, as it felt a little empty.

'Now that I think about it, I've never run so fast in my life and my sight seems to have improved. Logically speaking, my other senses should have had an improvement too.'

He kept staring at his dirty body with curious eyes. He had to stop cause his Master scolded him.

"What are you doing still here? Go take a bath, you stink!"

William pointed at a door at the start of the corridor while holding his nose with the other hand.

Noah happily bowed and went hurriedly through that door. Inside the room, there was a large basin that Noah supposed was used as a bathtub and some buckets full of water.

He washed himself carefully and then took a white kimono from a pile in the corner of the room. When he went out his Master was waiting for him in the corridor. He was dressed in a tight dark green gym suit with a sword sheathed on his back.

"Since you woke me up you will have to come with me. I have to retrieve some special herbs for a mission the only problem is that a group of four-eyed wolves has recently made the place where the herb is found their lair. Those magical beasts are just rank 1 and even of the lower level so you should be able to easily take them down even if their number is around 15. I could do it by myself but it's about time you have an actual fight and you can even familiarize with your new body since you are at it. Go to your room to pick your sabers and meet me at the main gate of the defense wall."

Noah was instantly excited and almost forgot to make a bow when he was about to leave.

He happily ran back to his building to pick the two sabers hidden in his room and since he had no sheath for them he just tied them to his waist with pieces of a blanket.

'A fight to the death! This is totally different from a simple sparring with Master. And this body is amazing, I did nothing but run today yet I'm still not sweating. Even the "Breath" stored in my body is increasing, right now I should be able to attack with it at least seven times by just using the one in my arms!'

The advantages of a rank 1 body were already this evident with just some hours of nourishment.

'I wonder how much time has to pass before I can go through the second cycle.'

The sudden increase of power made Noah totally disregard the pain and dangers of the treatment, leaving inside him only an endless eagerness to become stronger.

When he arrived at the main gate of the Balvan mansion he found William waiting for him with a sleepy face, apart from his previous outfit he had a leather bag in his hand.

Looking at the shabby way Noah tied his sabers he could not help but shake his head.

"Did you forget to steal a scabbard from the guards last time?"

Mocking him a bit, he threw the leather bag at the feet of his disciple.

Noah looked inside the bag and was surprised to see two short sheaths inside it, with a leather belt that could hold them.

'He really thought of that too.'

He could not help but smile when he saw how caring his Master was of him.

He hastily replaced his gear with the one in the bag.

When he was done he bowed deeply to his Master trying to express all his gratitude to him.

William nodded at his figure right now that even though was that of a kid, resembled a bit more the one of a warrior.

No master would like a shabby disciple after all his appearance would reflect on the image of his master.

"Follow me, we are gonna run to the wolf's lair immediately and take care of them."

Noah was a bit surprised.

"Are we not taking horses?"

Horses were the main form of travel in this seemingly medieval world and a stable was situated right before the main gate in order to provide its services more rapidly.

"You are a cultivator now, even if a weak one. Your body broke through rank 1, and even if it's not as fast as a horse, it can still run pretty fast. Plus you seem to forget that we are going to fight against magical beasts, a normal horse can only run away at their sight. Come on, I will explain things more in detail as we run."

William exited the gate and started running with Noah trying to follow him hurriedly.

This was the first time in his life that Noah left the mansion and he could not help but look around with curiosity and the green fields surrounding him, at some mountain in the distance and at Evergreen forest.

William saw his behavior and did a snort internally, raising his speed to force Noah to focus on following him.

'You are gonna fight for the first time and instead of being agitated you waste your time looking around, I guess he really is a kid.'

Noah and William sped in the direction of the forest that was at 3 days of distance on a horse.

After about 15 minutes of running, when the mansion was quite at some distance away from them, William started explaining.

"The four-eyed wolf is a magical beast the size of 3 meters, it generally has a pale-yellow fur and, as its name says, it has one pair of eyes on each side of his head. Its attacks consist of scratching and biting like every other wolf, and of a mental shockwave to momentarily startle his prey. With the steadiness of your mind, standing your ground against that attack is a stroll in a park so don't be too worried about it."

Noah lowered his head a bit to cover his complicated expression.

The reason was that no matter what level of mental energy his Master thought he had, he would always have way more of it.

'I know I can trust him but there is really no way to explain the transmigration thing to him. I'll just let him think of me as hardworking and with a high proficiency in it.'

William didn't notice the change in expression on his disciple and kept on with his explanation.

"Before, I said that the four-eyed wolf is a rank 1 magical beast so I think it's time to explain the ranks of a magical beast. It is humans who give a rank to the species of beasts based on their strongest attribute. For example, the four-eyed wolf has a rank 1 body but its mental attack is below that threshold, so the rank 1 of their species is given by their body."

Noah was really interested in this part of the explanation since he could never read something more specific about the cultivation world due to the fact that all the books about it were in the inner circle library.

He was about to ask which rank the dragon that attacked 10 years ago was when William continued speaking.

"Yet, Heaven and Earth are fair and since humans have a higher intellect and can create techniques to better express their strength, magical beasts have an easier growth process. Other than absorbing "Breath" naturally they can get stronger by eating other living beings full of "Breath" like magical beasts or cultivators. This causes innate aggression in their behavior and often causes cannibalism to happen inside their groups."

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"And what happens if they get strong enough to break through the limits of a rank?"

Asked Noah.

They were now running for 30 minutes and traces of sweat appeared on Noah's face, yet his Master seemed completely fine and continued to explain.

"They evolve, or to put it simply, they hibernate themselves for a period of time and when they wake up they will have a boost in all their natural abilities. Let's say, for example, that a four-eyed wolf of rank 1 was to evolve. Its rank would be 2 cause of its body but it would also have a rank 1 mental attack which will make it extremely more dangerous than its rank 1 version."

Noah finally had a better understanding of the evolution process of magical beasts and could not help but be a bit envious.

They had just to eat and sleep to get stronger while humans had to train nonstop only to take small steps toward a higher realm.

This time, William took notice of his disciple's expression and smiled a little.

"I know what you are thinking but don't worry, you will see humans advantage when you fight those beasts."

Noah was surprised but did not fully understand his Master words.

He started to focus his mind on the imminent battle trying to anticipate the worst possible outcome.

They moved for 20 more minutes till they reached a small hill, there William stopped and took a sack of water from inside his suit.

He passed the sack to Noah and said with a serious face.

"Over this hill, there is the wolf's lair. Their number amounts to 15 so you should be careful not to get surrounded. You will go alone while I will be watching closely enough to intervene if something bad happens. Remember all our training and don't be stingy on using the "Breath" until you have a complete understanding of your strength. Catch your breath a bit and then go, don't worry, you won't be in any danger."

Noah became even more serious in hearing these words.

He took a small sip from the sack and sat cross-legged on the floor to steady his breath.

He looked inside his sea of consciousness, where the faint shape of some lines was forming at the center of the sphere and checked that he was at peak condition.

'Do not hesitate, do not make mistakes. Be wary of your surroundings. 15 wolves to go.'

He exhaled with force and then stood up, his mind was ready and his body felt no fatigue, there was no reason to waste more time.

He unsheathed his sabers and started climbing the hill paying extra attention to anything that got perceived by his senses.

When he reached the top he could see the wolf's lair at the bottom of the other side of the hill.

The wolves were 3 meters long and 2 high, had 4 big and sharp eyes and yellow fur.

10 of them were lying on the ground, seemingly sleeping, while the other 5 were on guards on the sides of the sleeping group. A slightly bigger wolf was at the center of the pack, he was probably the alpha one.

'If I charge I will be completely in the open, there is no way I can catch them by surprise but there really seems to be no other option. Maybe if I run at full speed going down the hill and using the "Breath" I can land a couple of hits on one of them. Yet will it be enough to kill it? And then what about the other 14? Fucking Master, why can't you explain things properly'

He thought for a bit more but he really could not find other ways to get an advantage on them.

'Well, if I screw up, Master will just come and save me, so I might as well go all out.'

Steeling his mind, Noah concentrated and then jumped downward toward the lair.

He boosted his speed with the "Breath" in his legs and crossed his sabers in front of him.

He was fast! A rank 1 body using the "Breath" and going downhill reached an explosive speed.

Yet, Noah seemed not to notice as his mind was completely focused on taking out a wolf before they could surround them.

In a few breaths of time, he was at the bottom of the hill with one of the wolves staring at him.

As if it recognized some form of danger, it inspired as to prepare a howl to warn the other members of its pack.

Before it could though, Noah jumped horizontally and slashed at full strength toward the head of the wolf.

The saber, empowered with the "Breath", cut the wolf horizontally from its head till half its body like it was butter.

The wolf was dead on the spot!

Even Noah was stunned for a second by the perforating ability of the twin saber style but was immediately forced out of his amazement seeing that the other 4 awake wolves were ready to give the warning signal.

"AUUUUUUUUH"

Hearing the howl, Noah hurriedly took out the saber from the wolf corpse and jumped to one of the howling ones.

He was right in front of it before it even finished howling and without wasting any time he slashed at his head.

Even though he used less "Breath" than the first time he still felt almost no resistance from the wolf skull, as his saber pierced right through his brain.

The light in the wolf's eyes disappeared since it died and this gave Noah the signal to jump on another target.

Suddenly, a shockwave hit his sea of consciousness, the remaining 3 awake wolves attacked together in order to stall for the other members of the pack to get up.

The attack was like a shrill sound inside Noah's mind, yet his sphere did not even tremble being hit by it.

'So weak!'

Noah thought as he jumped right through the pack slashing at two wolves that were almost on their legs.

Two half-circles of blood were created in the air as the two sabers slashed vertically the heads of the two wolves.

This time Noah felt some resistance as he used even less "Breath" than the last time.

'I can use even less of it and still manage to cut right through their skulls with my body strength. 11 to go!'

Blood continued to flow as Noah moved around slashing at the heads of the wolves in the pack until a shrill sound way stronger than the one before made his mental sphere lightly tremble.

The alpha wolf was staring at him with venomous eyes as it used a mental attack together with the remaining 7 wolves.

Noah felt a bit of pain coming from his head, but it was so soft confronted with what he had been through that he didn't even stop for a second in his slaughter.

He would use less and less "Breath" to deal with the wolves as he estimated the strength of his body and he moved too fast for them to encircle him.

If a wolf jumped at him he would cut it in half with a double vertical slash, if it came from his side he would rotate on himself to deal a devastating blow.

The onslaught continued till only the alpha wolf remained, it had a large wound on his neck since he managed to avoid the clear hit on his head.

'This one is a bit stronger than the others, after all, it was the only one that dodged one of my attacks even if barely. Well, I must consider that I'm getting tired, so my speed is diminishing. Next time, I must aim for the stronger ones first.'

The wolf was still looking at him with anger but there was fear now in its eyes.

Noah slowly got closer while the wolf retreated, yet the wound on his neck was too serious to heal on its own.

The wolf so tried a desperate attack, jumping with its jaw open toward Noah.

He watched the fangs of the wolf getting closed and then dodged at the last time to his right, delivering an upward slash to its neck.

The body of the alpha wolf fell on the ground and its severed head rolled for some more distance.

After killing all of the 15 wolves he finally had some confidence in his ability!

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Noah breathed roughly.

Now that the battle was over he was overwhelmed by the tiredness of his body.

Even if he decreased the quantity of "Breath" as he got used to killing the beasts he still had almost none left.

He constantly used the one in his legs to boost his speed and agility and still used a bit of the one in his arms to activate the perforating ability of the twin saber style.

He sat on the bloody ground to rest a bit and allow his acupoints to refill the "Breath" in his body.

"You did a good job for your first time."

William arrived from behind him, smiling and carrying some flowers in his hands.

"So now you know why I told you that you would have been fine?"

Noah nodded and answered shortly.

"I use a rank 2 martial art, with just their rank 1 bodies they stood no chances."

William nodded.

"Yes! Martial arts and magic spells are what make humans the overlords of the world. A rank 2 martial art can damage a rank 3 body. The same goes for a rank 1 magic. Of course, if you don't have the corresponding quantity and quality of "Breath" you won't be able to fully use the potential of the techniques and you will be heavily limited in their usage."

Noah reviewed the battle he just had in his mind as he was waiting for his body to recover.

'I indeed wasted a lot of "Breath" during the battle and no one of the wolves could keep up with my speed so it was a one-sided battle. But I might run out of "Breath" if an enemy keeps dodging and that's if I consider my opponent a magical beast. Against a cultivator with the same martial art rank as mine, how would things go?'

He didn't like the answer he found.

The limits of having limited "Breath" were evident.

William shook his head, he could vaguely understand what his disciple was thinking.

"You don't seem to realize that no other kid of your age can slaughter a pack of rank 1 beasts without even getting hurt."

'Right, I almost forgot that I'm not even 11.'

He really did forget his age in this world for a moment.

His morale was lifted a bit.

The duo waited for 10 minutes before Noah stood up and nodded to his Master, signaling that they could go back.

When they could see the main gate of Balvan mansion, William got closer to Noah and spoke with a low voice.

"I believe that you acupoints will stop working soon since you advanced so you will be ready for the second treatment. After you enter the second cycle I will let you take on guard's missions."

Inside the guards building, on a table in the courtyard, 5 men and a kid sat in a circle reading a sheet in their hands.

The kid was, of course, Noah.

He was wearing a black gym suit with two sabers tied on his back inside their respective sheaths and his black hair was combed in a simple ponytail that fell on his back.

6 months passed since his fight with the four-eyed wolves and other than becoming 11 he also went through the second treatment.

He was still short since his body was still growing but his body seemed exceptionally sturdy with distinct muscles lightly bulging from his small body.

'Even though by now I've been in the second cycle for the same time I did with the first one my acupoints are still working at full speed. My body should be in the middle tier of the first rank right now.'

He thought before focusing again on the sheet in his hands.

Written on it there was the description of a mission and the reason for this group of guards gathering together.

'Lilun village, 5 days of travel by horse going south. Request for help due to continuous attacks from giant spiders, presumably a nest of ironclad spiders is inside a cave nearby. The mission consists of finding and destroying the nest.'

Noah raised his eyes from the sheet and looked at the frowning faces of his companions for this mission and waited for their group captain to explain further.

The group captain was called Mason and was a senior member of the guards of the outer ring. He was a tall man in his 50ies, with a long black beard and short red hair. His weapon of choice was a big two-handed ax.

Mason was waiting for everyone to finish their reading before nodding when he noticed the other 5 people looking at him.

"First, you must know that the ironclad spider is a rank 2 beast and apart from a really hard body it doesn't have any notable abilities. The only problem is that they reproduce at a really fast rate so their nest will probably be filled with newborns of rank 1. We will take the classic approach for the mission: get to the village, find clues about the nest, extirpate little by little their population. Any questions?"

No one seemed to have any objection until a guard of the group stood up and pointed at Noah.

He had only one eye and a deep scar that cut the now hollow eye cavity. He was a little shorter than Mason and was bald with a short beard. Yet, even though he was pretty tall, he was also quite fat and sweaty.

"I have only one question Mason, why the fuck are we taking a kid with us?"

Some of the other guards in the group seemed interested in Mason reply as to indicate that they had the same doubt.

Noah didn't even look at the fatty as he waited for the captain answer.

"The vice-captain vouched for him, so he can come and help us. And Balor, when this mission starts you must refer to me as captain or group captain."

Mason answered calmly but at the words "help us", the fatty named Balor exploded into laughter.

"This one was good, group captain. You could have just said that part of the mission was to babysit this kid cause his mother was busy serving the inner circle. Hahaha, help us!"

While he said so he neared Noah as to put his arm around his neck.

"Don't worry little kid, we will take good care of you, and maybe you can make me meet your mother in exchang--"

Balor stopped talking, or to better say, he had to stop.

A saber pointed at his left eye and the kid he was trying to hug with his right arm disappeared.

A threat sounded from his left side.

"Try to touch me, you fat pig, and I'll make you blind."

Noah was staring at him with icy eyes, the coldness he was emanating was intensified by his now extraordinary mental energy, it caused pressure to fall on Balor mind as his legs went soft and he kneeled on the ground. Yet, the saber always followed his remaining eye like it was attracted by it.

Noah kept looking at him applying mental pressure on the guard's mind.

Then he moved the saber toward the powerless guard and retracted it only when it was about to cut him.

After that, Noah sat back on the table as if nothing happened.

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The guards were surprised but nodded internally at such a show of power.

They were soldiers, after all, they respected power.

The captain didn't seem to care too much as he was used to these kinds of events being among soldiers all his life.

"Since everything is settled, the meeting is over. See you tomorrow at dawn, I will take care of renting the carriage but remember to take some provisions with you. Clearing that nest might take more time than we imagine."

The group got dismissed and everyone went their way, yet Balor took a bit more to get up since his legs still had no strength.

'That fat idiot, I really hope he won't cause problems to me in this mission. At least, the other guards should trust my abilities a bit now'

Noah was still irritated by Balor's previous act.

He didn't know if it was the mocking of his mother, his daringness even though he was weak, or simply his aspect.

'On the bright side, I'm finally going to fight rank 2 beasts, I was getting bored of only sparring with Master.'

He went back to his room and packed things for travel. He ordered the servant to make some portions and checked that everything was ready.

He had only one doubt.

'Should I take the Kesier rune with me? I can't train in it since I would be exhausted after every session and I can't allow me to be weak while in a mission.'

He was about to hide the sheet under the bed when he thought of something and happily put the rune in his suit.

'If I train for only a couple of hours it should be fine right?'

If his Master was to listen to him saying something like that he would probably beat him up.

Two hours were nothing for Noah as the second treatment made his mind even firmer.

The next day he was the first to arrive at the courtyard.

As the other members of the group arrived, they would nod at Noah and wait for everyone to gather.

The only exception was Balor who did not even try to hide his resentment and hate for Noah.

Noah didn't care enough to pay attention to him and when the last man arrived they moved together toward the main gate to pick their carriage.

When they were on the road, Mason, from inside the carriage, cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"In order to have better teamwork, we should introduce ourselves and our weapon of choice."

The guards of the outer ring were a group of soldiers that amounted to a bit more than 100 people so it was safe to say that they knew each other at least superficially.

'Is he doing this for me? He wants to get on William's good side?'

As Noah thought, Mason was trying to do a favor to him because of his relationship with the vice-captain.

"I'm Mason, one of the eldest in the group of the outer ring, I use a big ax."

The other guards didn't seem to hate the idea and answered shortly.

"Luke, bow and knife".

"Robert, longsword, you can call me Rob."

"Eddy, longsword."

Balor only snorted but two heavy hammers were placed to his side as a self-explanatory answer.

"Noah, sabers."

Silence fell inside the carriage which was particularly awkward.

Robert took out some dice form his backpack smiling radiantly.

"I brought these with me, someone wants to play even and odd?"

It was a simple game where you had to bet on either odd or even and the result of the rolling dice would decide the winner.

The soldiers quickly agreed to kill their boredom with only Noah and the captain remaining on their seats.

Like this the 6 days of travel passed, since a carriage was slower than a horse, setting a campfire every night and playing games during the day.

Noah would manage to sneak up some hours of training in the rune when everyone was asleep but never forced himself over the 2 hours limit since that would affect too much his condition and he wanted to be ready for any danger.

On the evening of their 6th day of travel, the shape of a village appeared in their sight.

There was smoke coming from it and the light of torches was creating a red halo in the darkness.

"Something is wrong."

Said Mason.

"Get out of the carriage, we run there and check the situation as soon as possible."

The group of 6 got out and ran at full speed toward the village.

Noah was the fastest, even though he didn't have the most powerful body of the group, he was smaller and had a lighter weapon, so he sped like a bolt leaving the other soldiers behind.

'Finally a battle!'

He really got bored in these 6 days since he could not train or spar with anyone.

The village was getting closer in his eyes as screams and vague orders were becoming more clear to Noah's ears.

When he was about to enter the perimeter of the village he unsheathed his sabers ready to fight.

Inside Lilun village, the scene was terrible.

Big spiders with dark gray bodies were freely killing the powerless commoners and carrying their corpses away.

The men of the village were trying to set up a line of defense to allow the women and the children to escape but they weren't more than a meat shield that could only stop the spiders' tide for some moments.

Blood flowed continuously on the ground as the villagers were stabbed to death by the sturdy legs of the spiders and then carried away on their back, the brown ground was transformed in dark mud by the battle.

An ironclad spider managed to pass the human wall and reached for a screaming woman holding a child in her hug, trying to block the imminent blow with her body.

SHRIIIIII!

The sound of metal sliding against metal sounded as the woman mustered her courage to look at the scene behind her.

A little kid, not older than 12, was staring at the spider corpse at his feet.

A deep cut ran for half its head and green blood flowed from it.

The spider body was 1 meter and a half long and its head made only 30 centimeters of it.

She was about to ask if it was him who saved her and her son but stopped seeing the frowning expression on the youth's face.

'I didn't use that much "Breath" but the results were way less than I anticipated. A rank 2 body sure is amazing, if I didn't go through the second treatment I'm afraid I could be able to kill only 6 or 7 of them before having to rest.'

The ironclad spiders had an incredibly tough body, as their name suggested, their defenses were top tier in the range of the rank 2 magical beasts.

The other soldiers caught up with Noah and were surprised to see that he got rid of one spider in that short amount of time.

An 11 years old kid that was able to take down a rank 2 beast wasn't exactly a daily sight!

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"What do we do captain?"

Mason came back to reality and watched his surroundings.

The spiders seemed satisfied with their reaps and slowly retreated carrying around 40 corpses on their backs.

Mason's eyes became resolute as he ordered.

"We stop as many as we can. I don't know why they are stockpiling food but we cannot allow so many of them to run away like this. Luke, you will follow those that escape and find out where their nest is. Good luck!"

He waited no more and went in pursuit of the beasts, the others followed behind him.

The group focused the spiders busy with the transport since they could not counterattack and in their poor intelligence they did not set any defensive formation around them.

Noah used his speed to appear in front of them and deal a clean lunge to their heads, which was his best method to spare "Breath" against their tough exoskeleton and still finish them in one blow. Meanwhile, he used his mental energy to pay attention to the guards' fighting method.

Mason would use his big ax to deal devastating blows not caring about hitting the corpses on the spiders' backs.

He swung his weapon with great dexterity and momentum creating his personal area of destruction as he advanced in the middle of the retreating group of beasts.

Noah could not help but think that if he got struck by one of those swings he would die on the spot.

Eddy and Rob had more difficulties.

Their martial art was the Balvan sword style which was rank 1 so its effects were limited against a rank 2 beast specialized in defense.

After they realized that they were only wasting energy, they used their swords to slow as many spiders as they could waiting for some of their companions to finish them.

From time to time, a sharp sound would run between them and a spider would fall dead on the ground with an iron arrow struck deep in its head. Luke was helping them from some distance away as he followed the faster specimens returning to their nest.

Balor was doing fine. His strikes were not precise but had great momentum, with his body weight added to his hammers one, every downward strike would kill or heavily injure a spider.

The slaughter continued for 20 minutes with only a small part of the beasts group managing to escape.

More than 30 spider corpses were scattered on the ground staining the terrain with green blood. The corpses of the villagers were either reduced to a pulp or heavily mutilated from the battle.

"Haha! The bodies of the ironclad spiders are really useful to the creation of magical weapons, when the inner circle comes to clean up we will be greatly rewarded!"

Balor exclaimed happily, and Eddy and Rob followed suit smiling radiantly.

Only Mason and Noah were frowning deep in thought.

'These beasts never reacted to our presence, they were only concerned on retreating with the dead villagers, something doesn't feel right.'

He looked in the direction of Mason and saw that he was probably thinking about the same thing.

He raised his eyes from the ground and looked at Noah shaking his head, neither him, with his experience, found an answer to the strange behavior of the spiders.

"We will know more once Luke comes back, let's rest at the village for now, maybe the villagers' stories can enlight us."

Noah nodded while the other 3 men looked confused by the captain words but chose to follow his orders anyway.

They needed food and rest after this battle, and the mission was far from finished.

Back at the village, Mason asked questions around but in the end, he found nothing useful.

He exposed what he had learned to the other four while they were eating some soup made of the leftovers inside the village.

"The attacks started around a week ago. At first, the spiders would kill the livestock of the village and carry it back to their nest. When the livestock ended, they targeted humans with the same pattern: kill and bring back. The situation escalated till the invasion of today. According to the elders of the village descriptions, this was the highest number they attacked with, so we can assume that they are increasing the number of their group."

Noah frowned.

'This makes no sense, there was selflessness in their actions, they didn't even protect themselves!'

"We killed quite a lot of them though, I think we can assume that their number in the nest should not go over 60."

Rob argued trying to lift the group morale.

The door of the house they were in opened as Luke's figure appeared. He calmly sat on the opposite side of Mason and took a drink from Eddy's soup.

"The entrance of the nest is at a few hours of travel going East. It is an underground cave naturally formed. I followed the spiders inside for a bit but then opted to retreat for fear of being surrounded."

Mason nodded and asked.

"What do you think of the situation?"

Luke took another sip from Eddy's bowl.

"It was strange, I could clearly tell that they were amassing food but there were a lot of spider's corpses inside the cave. It's like they are undergoing a forced reproduction only to eat their offspring."

Rob was disgusted thinking about this and cursed loudly.

"A beast, even if a magical one, is still a beast in the end."

Noah was even more confused now, their behavior made no sense. If they needed food to reproduce themselves why would they eat their offspring? What was worth dying for, for a magical beast?

Mason reviewed all the information he had and made the attack plan.

"We gather some resources tonight and then set an encampment in front of the entrance of the nest. Tomorrow morning, we will go inside to explore and clear the cave. If we cut their replenishment of food and diminish their numbers little by little we will be completely safe while still completing the mission. Get ready, we depart in one hour."

No one objected, so they got ready and by midnight they had set a fireplace 50 meters from the entrance of the nest.

They took turns to keep a night watch.

When it was Noah's turn, he could not suppress the faint sense of danger that the cave made him feel.

No matter how much he reviewed the information he had, he would always feel that he was missing something.

'Selfless magical beasts, continuous accumulation of food, cannibalism. What is actually happening?'

Nothing that could link all these pieces of information came to his mind.

He calmed himself and sorted his mind, he was ready for the battle coming in the morning.

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At dawn, a group of five men and a kid stared at the entrance of an underground cavern two meters wide and three meters tall. It went downward till eyes could see and was completely silent.

"The passage will go on for about a kilometer and then will divide itself in different directions. I only know in which direction the spiders went last night cause I stopped there."

Luke explained.

"I will be in the head, the rest of you follow tightly."

Mason ordered and went in, the rest of the group followed with Noah at the center of it.

The passage was made of rocks and terrain and didn't seem too stable and, as they moved on, the light of the sun could not reach their position.

The passage was growing darker which made the group advance slowly.

Mason was being very careful of where he stepped since he knew that, in the enemy's nest, even a little sound could cause a catastrophe.

The passage got larger after some time and they could stand side to side, then they arrived where the cavern split into different branches.

Luke pointed at one of them and Mason went directly inside.

They walked for about an hour before the passage split again.

The light was scarce and the air was stifling wet but the group had to wait until Luke found some traces of the beasts to decide in which direction they had to explore.

"There are no conclusive traces, well, there are signs of their passage in all 4 the directions. I advice we take the rightmost since there seems to be light coming from there."

Mason thought a little and then decided on following Luke's advice.

They moved again and after another hour of march, the cause of the faint light coming from the end of the rocky corridor showed itself.

A big basin occupied a space of some hundreds of meters square and, at the center of it, a lake was situated which glowed with faint blue light.

'Water that glows?'

Noah was surprised, he never heard of anything like this.

He looked around to see if any one of the group knew something.

Mason's eyes were wide open like his mouth hung on his jaw.

Noticing Noah's gaze he recomposed himself and talked in a soft voice.

"I might have an idea of what that is and if I'm right we could not need to work anymore for the rest of our life. Yet, to be sure I must look at it closely."

Everyone's attention was piqued by Mason's words as they started to stare at the lake with greed.

'Strange, the concentration of "Breath" seems higher than the surface.'

Noah could feel his acupoints slowing their work as the air had a higher percentage of "Breath" in it.

Before he could investigate any further, Mason moved toward the lake.

On the walls of this big space, there were countless holes of different dimensions and on the ground, there were countless bones belonging to different species.

'Ironclad spider's legs, human skulls, those should belong to a sheep.'

As they were getting closer to the edge of the lake the numbers of body's remains grew as it grew the concentration of "Breath" in the air.

When they reached the lakeshore, Mason could not hide his excitement anymore.

"Yes, I'm sure. Inside the lake, there must be a "Breath" blessing, it's a legendary mineral that can attract "Breath", the inner ring will pay any price to get it, imagine our rewards if we bring it back!"

Everyone stared at the center of the lake, trying to find this legendary stone with their eyes, they didn't notice that the sound of crawling started to resound in the basin.

Noah was the first to pay attention to the sound as his alertness and mental energy were the highest in the group.

"They are coming!"

He unsheathed his sabers without hesitation.

The men were started awake by Noah's warning and cursed loudly when they heard the sound coming from every direction.

Spiders crawled out from the holes in the walls, they were of different dimensions as some of them were still rank 1. Yet, at least 50 of them were rank 2.

"Don't panic! We might get wounded but we can handle their numbers."

Mason yelled looking at the hundred of magical beasts surrounding them.

Suddenly, the bones on the shore of the lake rose as a figure that was hidden beneath them was revealed.

It was 3 meters long and had 8 long and sharp legs. 3 pairs of eyes were on the sides of its face and 2 big pincers protruded from its mouth.

"Rank 3!"

Luke yelled but the mighty beast did not hesitate.

It shot one of its legs at Noah that blocked it but was sent flying for a couple of meters.

"RUN!"

Ordered Mason, as the group moved in the direction they came from, uncaring of the spiders in their path.

Noah jumped on his feet and followed them a bit behind.

'Fuck! My hands are still trembling from that blow and I think my sabers cracked a bit. Why the fuck I didn't reach this conclusion, it was obvious! The only reason a magical beast would be so selfless is that something more powerful than it gave the order! I'm so stupid! I have to run!'

He sped through the pack of spiders like he was a shadow, crouching and jumping to avoid their legs.

The other guards had already reached the passage and were swinging their weapon to force the blockage of spiders, when Noah arrived they had already proceeded and new spiders came to block his escape.

Without wasting any time he executed the best forms he ever did in his life and killed 2 rank 2 spiders on the spot only to continue speeding toward the passage.

Inside it, more spiders were crawling out from the walls using their powerful legs to obstruct the road but Noah didn't care.

He let them scratch and cut his skin in order not to waste any time.

When he arrived at the place where the first passage was, Balor was there preparing to enter. He didn't seem in a good condition as wounds were all over his fat body and blood flowed out of them.

He looked at Noah speeding toward him and smiled.

"Don't worry young man, I'll definitely tell everyone of your brave attempt in holding back those beasts to allow our escape. And don't worry about your mother, I'll be sure to console her properly eheh."

Noah's eyes widened hearing these words but he could only look as the man in front of him raised his hammers and struck the wall on his side.

The passage walls could not hold the impact and crumbled in front of him, while Balor was speeding on the other side.

"NOOOO!"

A rough yell came out of Noah's mouth as his only way out was destroyed in front of him.

'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!'

"Fuck you, you worthless pig, if I ever come out of here alive I'll make sure to kill you personally!"

He could not contain his curses.

Meanwhile, spiders kept coming in his direction leaving him no time to for desperation.

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Noah turned to face the spiders coming from his back.

He jumped on them dealing 3 fast slashes.

3 rank 1 spiders fell on the ground cut in half.

His mental energy was aiding at full speed his decision making while he brainstormed about the situation.

'What can I do? That rank 3 beast must have been in hibernation in order to evolve so it can't still control his body properly, that's why I survived so easily its attack but I don't think I can face it even with this.'

Two other strikes were shot out from his figure, a rank 2 spider had its head pierced while the rank 1 was halved.

'There must be another way to the main corridor of the surface, there were other branches that we didn't enter, maybe one of these passages leads to them.'

Once finding that his theory was possible, he didn't waste any time and ran into the leftmost corridor.

Hordes of spiders kept going for him but he would just kill them with the least amount of "Breath" needed.

He was too focused, in this time of life and death his mind steeled like never before.

Even though he went through the treatment twice already, that only required to endure the pain.

This time had to find a way out, kill everything that threatened him and still conserve energy in case the rank 3 appeared.

This pressure made his sea of consciousness as a whole focused only on survival.

The passage had many branches but most of them had a blue light at the bottom of it that Noah linked to the lake, which is to say the rank 3. That's why he never took them.

Sometimes a branch that went upward appeared, Noah would take them and find himself back in some places he already passed, once he even found a corridor that led back directly to where he came from.

The cave was like an underground maze and since there seemed to be no patterns in its passages he could only test all of them from the ones that felt safer to the ones with the blue light at the bottom.

At no point during his exploration spiders stopped from appearing.

Even though most of them were newborns of rank 1 they still required a little bit of "Breath" to be dealt with because their defense was high.

Noah was helpless about the situation and even with his acupoints working at full speed in an environment with a higher concentration of "Breath" the one inside his body kept on diminishing.

He found himself again standing where Balor destroyed the passage.

'I mostly explored every ramification in the other passages. Only one left, if this one ends up as a dead end too, I'll be forced to follow the blue light.'

He went inside the road on the left of the rightmost one.

The passage was large, it could fit 3 grown up men.

Seeing the blue light getting closer Noah was almost ready to turn back but then he saw a cavity entrance to his left that went upward and in his opposite direction.

Noah was overjoyed.

'That must be the one, it's the only road till now that goes straight in that direction!'

He sped right to the entrance but found strange that no spiders appeared since he entered this corridor.

'Did I kill too many of them? Impossible, I mostly killed rank 1 spiders and only about 10 rank 2. I have a bad feeling.'

As if answering his premonition, the wall to his right collapsed and a huge figure came out.

Noah didn't even wait for the figure to be fully visible as he hurriedly turned back to escape.

Yet, the passage behind him was crumbling on itself from all the ruckus the beast created by going through it.

He slowly turned to face the figure that was standing still, blocking the only road left.

The rank 3 ironclad spider was standing of 4 of his legs with half his body raised in the air. The other 4 legs were pointing in the direction of Noah and its pincers kept opening and closing at an uneven rhythm.

It seemed to enjoy the feeling of trapping its prey as it just waited for Noah to act.

'If it's fear you are waiting for you'll be disappointed, the threat of death cannot cause it in me.'

He had already died once and the treatment would force him to see its doorsteps every time, death really had no hold on his emotions.

With his back on the crumbled wall and his front facing the massive beast, only calmness could be found in his mind.

'If I die it's fine, but that doesn't mean that I would just give up.'

He remembered his first lesson with William about impossible situations, yet, even an ant had its right to defy the will of a dragon.

Coldness exuded from his figure like an extension of his state of mind.

'But I'm not an ant and you are not a dragon! I can do this!'

His plan was to go through the spider and run for the upward passage.

He jumped toward the beast dealing the strongest strike possible with his technique.

2 iron legs blocked the blow, while the other 2 shot to Noah.

Red blood flowed as wounds appeared on his body, he managed to avoid a critical hit but the legs still scratched his skin.

He could not pass it. If he defended he would be bounced back on the wall if he deflected the other two legs would be there waiting for him.

Tens of attacks were exchanged between the kid and the monster, but the stamina of the spider was nearly infinite and it kept getting stronger as it got used to its new body.

In contrast, Noah was being covered by wounds and even if not serious ones they would still add up the blood loss as time kept passing.

Plus, "Breath" was growing scarcer in his body and his sabers were losing pieces of their body with every exchange.

'I can't keep up for much longer. Think! Think of every single possibility you have. Think of every experience you had in two lives. There must be something that I can do, I refuse to die here when I barely started my cultivation's journey!'

He kept on blocking and attacking until his face lit up.

'That might actually work.'

The plan was set in his mind as he got ready for his last assault.

He charged straight at the spider and blocked with one saber the incoming leg, he let the other one pierce his left shoulder.

Since he allowed the spider to strike a small window of opportunity opened and he threw his right saber straight at the beast face.

The flying saber could not hurt the spider but was enough to catch him by surprise.

In the few instants the spider used to deflect his saber, Noah freed himself from the leg in his shoulder and got closer to his face, his now free right hand scrammed through the insides of his suit.

When the beast turned back to face Noah he found him standing at one meter of distance holding an unfolded sheet in his hand, pointing it to the spider field of view.

The blue light coming from behind it made clear the figure of a rune written on it.

CRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!

A painful scream shot out from the spider, as its first interaction with a Kesier rune hurt its sea of consciousness and stunned him momentarily.

'Now!'

This was the chance Noah betted his left shoulder and right saber for.

He held the remaining saber with both his hands and put all his remaining "Breath" in one last lunge aimed at the beast's head.

The saber pierced with difficulty the spider head and went through it emitting a shrill sound.

After it came out on the other side of the head the blade shattered from the cracks it received in the battle and from the amount of "Breath" it had to withstand.

Noah fell on the ground feeling completely drained.

THUD

A loud sound came right on Noah's side as the spider too fell on the ground.

Its body was not moving anymore, it was dead!

Noah looked at it for a bit for fear that it would stand up but relaxed when he saw no more movements coming from it.

He hugged the sheet that saved his life and closed his eyes overwhelmed by exhaustion.

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Sounds of iron against rock reverberated in the passage.

Noah opened his eyes and was almost scared by the corpse on his side.

But when the pain from his body arrived he remembered the situation he was in.

'I have basically no "Breath" left. The one being absorbed by my acupoints is being used to mend my wounds, I believe I won't be able to kill even a rank 1 beast, let alone the remaining rank 2'

He tried to stand up pointing with his knees and elbows but he remained in a crouching position for a while.

The noise from the other spiders was getting closer.

'They are probably attracted from the body of the rank 3. I must get away, come on body MOVE!'

He managed to stand up holding the wall, he put the Kesier rune back in his clothes and moved slowly to pick his remaining saber.

He limped slowly toward the passage on the left only to find that the sound came from the bottom of it.

'Shit! Don't tell me that I'm going to die even after killing the rank 3!'

He was at loss of what to do, he needed time to rest but he had no food or water with him since he left his backpack in the fireplace on the surface.

'Wait! Water! Maybe I can sneak out to the lake while the spiders are busy eating their previous boss.'

He looked in the direction of the blue light and moved toward it.

He was walking at a slow pace and supporting himself on the rocks on the wall. It took him one hour to reach the basin.

The environment there was completely silent, either the spiders were still busy eating the rank 3 or their low intelligence didn't make them realize that now they could use the lakeshore to their will.

Since there were no more walls to sustain him, Noah chose to crawl till the center of the underground room.

'Luckily they have low intelligence, I believe that if it was a rank 3 four-eyed wolf the effect of the rune would have not been so decisive.'

He reached the lake and took a mouthful of water to drink.

The water relieved his body from some tiredness and even filled it with a bit of "Breath".

'Right, the Breath blessing! These waters must be filled with "Breath" I can speed my recovery!'

Spiders began to crawl out of the holes in the underground room and move toward him and at their sight, Noah only smiled faintly.

'Of course, another danger would come after I find a bit of hope.'

He threw himself in the lake and floated toward its center.

'Now that I think about it, it's the first time I'm swimming with this body. Well, even the rank 3 was staying on the shore where the concentration of "Breath" is less than the water so it's safe to say that they can't swim.'

His hypothesis was right as the spiders would just surround the lake without entering it.

A peculiar scene was unfolding.

A kid wearing a smile was floating on the surface of a lake towards its center while 60 or so spiders were waiting on the shore.

'This feels too good! My body is being nourished at an incredible speed, apart from the wound of my shoulder, the others have mostly stabilized. And the concentration of "Breath" is still raising.'

When he was at the center even his wound on the shoulder showed signs of getting better.

Noah stayed like this for a while waiting for his wounds to heal.

'Maybe if I go to the bed of the lake I can speed the process.'

Once he had the idea, he followed through it immediately.

He kept going down through the water and at around 10 meters depth he saw a blue oval stone.

It was shining on its own and was beautiful to the sight.

As Noah got closer to it the thickness of "Breath" rose exponentially and when he was in front of it he could even feel his body getting stronger.

He didn't think much as he took the stone big as a man face and went back to the surface to breathe.

The Breath blessing was extraordinary, it was constantly attracting "Breath" of such a quality that all his wounds were closing and the acupoints went back on completing the second cycle of the Seven Hells.

After half a day, Noah found himself laughing happily, a sense of completeness filled his body.

'This thing is amazing! Not only it healed my wounds, it even helped me complete the second cycle! I've never felt so strong! I wonder if I can manage to keep it?'

He thought for a bit but then shook his head.

'A treasure is one only if I have the strength to protect it. If I'm weak it's just a calamity. Better to just give it to the inner circle and take some rewards.'

His acupoints had stopped working since the cycle was complete and his wounds were healed, there was no point in being here anymore.

He tied the stone to his clothes and looked at the spiders still waiting on the shore.

'Well, let's see what my body can do now!'

Going back to the time the guards escaped, 4 men were staring at the entrance of the cave.

Then a fifth figure came out, revealing itself as Balor.

The group was mostly fine, they only had some light injury that needed some mending.

When Balor came out, he found the other 4 men staring at him with disgust and repulsion.

Mason didn't even waste time talking, he arrived next to him and punched hard his face.

Balor fell on the ground confused.

"Ca-Captain what are you doing?"

Mason could not control his anger as he kicked the fat man on the ground.

"What am I doing? What have you done is the question! We all heard Noah cursing you, apart from being a disgusting man holding grudges with a kid do you know what mess you've put all of us in?"

Balor took the insults but still felt wronged, wasn't Noah just the bastard kid of a whore?

But Mason didn't care of his confusion and kept kicking in anger.

"When I said that the vice-captain vouched for him it wasn't the whole truth. That kid was the only disciple of the smiling blade William Challi! Do you know what he will do to us when he arrives?"

Realization dawned on Balor as he trembled in fear.

"Th-then let's just say that the rank 3 killed him while we could do nothing, like this he would not do anything to us?"

But Mason only shook his head.

"I already contacted him through a special talisman that he gave me explaining the situation. I will not risk my life to cover a piece of shit like you. Men, tie him up!"

Everyone got to work and tied Balor while they waited for the judgment of the vice-captain of the guards to fall on them.

A day and a half later, a figure appeared on the distance.

It was speeding like a bullet on the ground, and its legs were barely visible from how fast they were moving.

It abruptly stopped in the fireplace where the guards were waiting.

It was sunset and the figure got revealed by the last ray of lights of the day.

William stood there catching a breath, the tiredness for his hurrying here was surpassed only by the anger of one of his men betraying his disciple.

"Where he is! Tell me where my disciple is!"

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William was furious.

After all the pain his disciple went through only to get a bit stronger, he got betrayed on his first mission by a worthless soldier.

Mason stood up and explained with his head lowered.

"Vice-captain, we last saw him a day and a half ago when he got hit by the rank 3 beast. The last thing we heard was him cursing Balor."

He pointed at the man tied on the ground.

William focused on the man on the ground, the mental pressure he was emanating made Balor incapable of breathing.

"Please vice-captain have mercy! That kid threatened and insulted me and I was scared for my life, I only did what I had to do to survive!"

Lies came out of Balor's mouth as William was getting closer.

He took the tied hands of the trembling soldier and held them in his hands.

Then he spoke with a cold voice.

"If my disciple threatens you, you lower your head and ask for mercy."

The grip became tighter as the flow of blood in Balor's hands stopped.

"If my disciple insults you, you smile and thank him for his pointers."

Cracking sounds came from his hands as bones were compressed on each other.

His anger was so overwhelming that he didn't hear the faint sound of steps coming from the cavern entrance.

"If my disciple is risking is life, you exchange your place for his and risk yours, and if you die in the process you do that happily."

CRACK

The bones in Balor's hands shattered but he could not make any sound. He was too terrified by William's anger that he had no air left in him to talk.

The guards watching the process trembled when they heard the sound of his hands breaking and prayed that they could survive the vice-captain venting.

"Master, what are you doing here?"

A young voice came from the cave as a figure was visible on its entrance.

He was a kid with his upper body naked, pieces of his suit were pending on his sides.

He was bathed in a green substance from head to toe making him look like he had some kind of skin disease.

A broken saber was in his left hand with only half of the blade remaining.

He was looking half smiling at William with tranquil eyes.

"Noah?"

William immediately got up and jumped on him as he checked for injuries on his body, but apart from some scars and his suit reduced into pieces, everything was fine in him.

"Yes, Master?"

Noah looked at him in confusion, he still could not link his presence with this place.

The other guards were looking at him with wide eyes and even Balor had his mouth hung open as if he didn't believe in what he was watching.

William was happy beyond measure in seeing his disciple safe but could not help to release a storm of questions.

"How did you survive? What about the rank 3? Why didn't you come back earlier? And why are you green?"

He was holding Noah by his shoulders shaking him every time a question came out.

Noah was forced to answer in order to calm his Master down.

"Well, the cave is pretty big so I just kept running around killing spiders. The wall was destroyed by the fatty so I had to find another way out. The rank 3 is dead and the green is the blood from the other spiders."

This time, everyone had their mouth open as they digested the information.

William was the first to recover and kept on questioning him.

"What you mean the rank 3 is dead?"

"Well, dead is dead, I killed him."

Another wave of shock went through the men hearing this.

This time it was Balor the one who talked.

"Bullshit! How could you kill a rank 3 magical beast and come out uninjured?"

He regretted saying that when he saw the Master-disciple duo staring at him with killing intent and he lowered his head for fear of another round of torture.

"That scum is right though, how did you do it?"

Noah took out a folded sheet from his waist and showed it to his Master.

"I showed it the Kesier rune and took the chance when he was confused to strike a fatal attack. I believe it still was in its process to adapt to the evolved body, that's why I could hurt it."

William felt a bit of irritation going through him.

He smiled at Noah and said with a calm voice.

"And why would you have the rune with you in the mission?"

Noah answered with honesty like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Well, it was a travel of 6 days and I wanted to train in the breaks."

A light punch arrived at the top of his head.

"You are impossible! Do you really think of nothing but training? Uff, I guess it's fine since it saved your life. Still, how are you uninjured?"

Noah seemed to remember something. He took out an oval form tied with a cloth and gave it to his Master.

When William unfolded it, a blue light shot out from it.

"Breath blessing! No wonder that specimen managed to reach rank 3! Haha my disciple, this time you really did an exemplary job. Don't you worry, I will intercede with the inner ring for you and take the best reward I can bargain for."

Hearing the word "reward" Noah's eyes lit up and he licked his lips.

"I will need better sabers, Master. These ones cracked only after some hits from a rank 3 beast."

William was about to reprimand but then shook his head smiling and ruffled his untied hair.

"Most importantly, what do you want to do with him?"

He pointed a Balor on the ground that was looking at him with pleading eyes.

Noah got closer and looked at his pitiful figure.

"Please, young master have mercy. I swear I will serve you with all my expertise from now on, I will..."

A torrent of pleads came out of his mouth but Noah only kept on looking at him with cold eyes.

When Balor stopped talking Noah gave only a short answer.

"No."

The saber did a horizontal arc and Balor's head detached from his body and rolled on the ground, blood flowed tainting the terrain.

His Master got close to him and asked in a soft voice.

"Are you ok? It is the first time you kill a human after all."

Noah looked at him smiling and said in a shameless voice.

"You know, my second cycle is complete, so I thought we could do the third treatment as soon-"

Another punch hit the top of his head and forced him to shut up.

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Noah woke up in a room of the guards building.

2 weeks have passed since he came back from the mission and 4 days ago he went through his third treatment.

His back still hurt a bit but his mental energy had recovered. He would train if his master didn't take the rune from him worried that he would not focus on healing.

His worries were right on point.

'Mh, my body should reach the limits of rank 1 at the end of this cycle, I wonder how much will it take. What a pity, if I had that stone I could go straight for rank 2 this month.'

The Breath blessing was delivered by William to the inner circle so it was probably gone forever from his grasp.

He focused his mental energy on aiding the healing process since he had nothing to do while eating the food left on the table nearby.

The door of the room opened as William went inside the room with a bigger smile than usual, he was carrying a leather bag and a big wooden box.

"Haha my dear disciple, good morning, I bring good news!"

He placed the box and the bag on the bed and pointed at them.

"These are the rewards I got for you and I have to say that they are awesome, you won't be disappointed."

Noah didn't waste any time and started opening the box, his Master made him curious.

In the box there were 2 sabers inside their respective sheaths, their hilts were clean shiny, they seemed brand new.

He picked one of them and unsheathed it, the body of the blade was black and sharp.

"They were specially forged for you from 2 legs of the rank 3 ironclad spider that you took down. They are not magical weapons but surely are top tier between the normal blades."

Noah was unconsciously smiling looking at the blade and swinging it around, he would get up and try it if it wasn't for his body still needing rest.

He sheathed the saber and looked at the bag.

An old book was inside and when he looked at the first page his eyes widened as he could not hide the shock he was feeling.

He looked at his Master in disbelief.

"Is this really for me?"

William smile grew even more as he nodded.

"Your Master is amazing isn't he?"

He wanted to brag a bit but Noah's eyes went on the book as soon as he saw him nodding.

William just shook his head and waited for his disciple to finish his reading.

'Nails of the Kamaitachi, rank 3. Martial art created imitating the rank 4 magical beast Kamaitachi. Highest speed and perforation between the arts of the same rank. It allows the user to cut at an unbelievable speed and precision surpassing every protection. The user might also cut things at some distance away from the blade and, at full mastery, it can shot wind slashes through the air. Limited to two-weapon wielders'

Noah raised his gaze from the book.

"The Kamaitachi is a weasel-like beast that runs the wind and cuts to death without the victim even noticing. It should fit you really well."

He took the folded sheet containing the rune from his clothes and gave it to Noah.

"Next week we begin to spar again, I believe you will want to test your new techniques."

Noah looked at him and bowed deeply uncaring of the pain on his back.

William ruffled his hair and got out of the room leaving him alone to concentrate on the book.

Having finally something to do, Noah's days of recovery passed rapidly.

His weekly sparring with William continued but he noticed a problem with his new martial art: his "Breath" was insufficient to express its potential.

To be precise he could only use one of its abilities twice before being drained.

"That is completely normal, you always forget how early you are in things. Normally, to use a martial art of high level you would need a dantian but you complain about being able to use only two attacks. Your biggest gain, for now, is the improvement in your forms, anything else must wait until you get a rank 2 body."

William explained.

Their sparring session had ended and Noah was exposing his doubts to him.

"So, what you think I should do, Master?"

"You could just let your body grow but you don't seem to know how to stay still."

William felt a bit of exasperation saying this.

"You can gather battle experience doing missions, I believe you should be fine against any kind of rank 2 magical beasts."

Months passed by.

Noah alternated between his usual schedule in the mansion and his travels outside it to clear magical beast's nests.

There was a pack of four-eyed wolves with a specimen that reached rank 2 but they were wiped out in half a day.

A horned snake appeared in the vicinity of a village in the North.

Its scales were hard, his body 10 meters long and large 2, and had poisonous fangs in its mouth. It was a beast at the peak of rank 2 and Noah had to resort to his rank 3 martial art to kill it after a strenuous battle.

He was forced to rest for 3 days because of that fight.

Yet, his most troublesome opponent had been a mud demon. This type of magical beast was naturally created when too much "Breath" accumulated in one place and consolidated.

The consolidated "Breath" would act as the core of a beast that could manipulate the terrain around it. It was not a powerful beast but countered heavily Noah's techniques.

He had to cut it in small pieces repeatedly to find the core and destroy it while dodging the earth spikes that it created to attack him.

Yet, his battle proficiency rose at a fast pace having to face different situations as he could decide more quickly the best way to deal with an opponent.

Today, he was sitting on his knees waiting for the usual mission that his Master would hand to him every month.

"This time will be different, you will go with a group of people that I picked personally."

Noah was immediately intrigued.

'Since he always let me go alone the difficulty of the mission must be higher to require a group.'

He picked the sheet describing the mission from William's hands.

'Deserters of the Shosti family have raided the village of Tasart, only the corpses of men and elders have been found, they probably took away women and young girls for their enjoyment. Find the rebels and execute them. Warning: there are cultivators inside their group.'

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"As you know, the Shosti family rules over us and since the rebels are in Balvan mansion's zone of influence they ordered us to take care of them."

Noah listened to the explanation but had a doubt in his mind.

"Master, can I fight a cultivator?"

His ability to fight with beasts of higher rank than him was mainly due to the fact that they were, in the end, just beasts.

A powerful body and some peculiar ability could be matched by powerful techniques and perfect execution of them.

But what would happen against someone who had a dantian and practiced techniques as powerful as his?

"Generally speaking, no. If he matches your abilities he will just overwhelm you by the sheer quantity of his "Breath". You might catch him by surprise using your rank 3 martial art but then you will be mostly drained. And if he has a rank 3 martial art too, well, just run."

Noah felt depressed listening to this.

He was hardworking and talented, mostly due to his powerful mind, but others were too. And if he had to clash with them the difference in time spent cultivating would be decisive.

"So why are you giving me this mission?"

If he really could not do anything about the situation there was no point in going toward danger, he liked to fight but he was no idiot.

"Your role would be only of support. You will take care of the non-cultivator and of those with a rank 1 martial art between them, leaving the real fight to the others of your group."

William was about to dismiss him when he thought of something.

"Ehm, you can trust them this time, I made sure of that."

He showed a complex expression while he said that, apparently the events with Balor were still lingering in his mind.

Noah smiled and reassured his Master.

"Don't worry Master!"

As he left the room his smile disappeared transforming in a cold expression.

'No way I'm gonna trust anyone except Lily and Master, I should hide my strength from the time being, the nails of the Kamaitachi must be my hidden ace in the sleeve.'

When Balor betrayed him it made him remember the cruelty of men, which he had forgotten living as a kid for so much time.

He went back to his room and practiced again in all of the forms of the rank 3 art, only then he calmed himself.

His weakness was making him feel restless.

The more he knew about this world, the more he understood how dangerous it was.

By clearing nests he got an idea of how populous were the magical beasts in this world and yet humans still were at the top of the food chain, that meant that their power was unimaginable.

'While I'm just 2 steps away from the bottom of human power, I can surpass only commoners and dumb soldiers.'

In his mind, a soldier with a rank 1 technique became a dumb soldier.

His irritation reflected itself on his night training in the rune as he almost collapsed after forcing himself to watch it for 7 hours straight!

After more than one year and a half of training non-stop, the faint shape of the rune was visible in his sea of consciousness, he was sure it would not take much before he became a rank 1 mage.

'I guess I should start creating excuses for my rapid progress in mental energy, I wonder what face will Master make if I reach the apprentice mage status before I turn 13.'

He smiled imagining at his Master's astonished face but then the wave of pain from his head arrived so he went to sleep to rest his mind.

The next morning, he found his Master in the courtyard with 3 men and a woman around him, they were waiting for him.

"Noah, they will be your companions for the mission."

"So it's him?"

It was a tall muscular man between them who talked, he had no beard and short dark hair with a greatsword almost as big as him on his back.

He stared at Noah with focus, applying pressure with his mind.

'Is he testing me?'

His mental energy was heavy and was pressuring Noah's sphere but was far from enough to make him stand back.

Noah took the chance to harden his sphere since it was the first time he felt a constant pressure from the outside of it and closed his eyes to concentrate on it.

The man mistook his behavior as his attempt to resist the pressure and felt challenged, so a stalemate was created.

Noah would focus on strengthening the walls of his mind while the guard would raise the mental pressure to win the imaginary contest he thought he was in.

After 10 minutes, blood came out of the guard nose and he was struggling to keep the pressure.

The woman, seeing the blood, gave a strong slap to the back of his head stopping his concentration and dispelling the pressure.

"Ethan, stop, the kid is using you."

The man named Ethan was about to complain when he got hit but then the words of the woman made him look carefully at Noah.

He still had his eyes closed and a slight smile was on his face.

When Noah opened his eyes he showed a disappointed expression but then he noticed that everyone was looking at him.

"I swear he almost did it, I bet that if you let him try for one more hour he will definitely do it!"

A punch arrived at the top of his head as William moved behind him placing his hands on his shoulders.

"This shameless kid is my disciple, Noah. Always pay attention when you deal with him because he will say and do anything to learn more about your powers."

Noah raised his head to look at the Master behind him and complained.

"Come on Master, it's not fair if you break my cover so soon. Don't listen to him I'm a pure and innocen-"

Another punch hit him.

Ethan was incredulous, the woman was surprised while the other two men were almost suffocating from holding back their laughter.

They never saw someone treat the vice-captain like this and from the look of it, William actually gave up on fixing his disciple behavior.

"Haha, kid you're the best. I am Sanford but you can call me Sandy."

"We won't get bored in this mission, right Sandy? Haha. My name is Mark. Young man, we will get along."

The two laughing men could not hold themselves anymore as they greeted Noah.

The woman massaged her temples while exhaling.

"Don't listen to those two idiots. I'm Susan the captain for this mission and their nanny. The other guy is called Ethan, he is stupidly competitive. Now let's get somewhere private to decide how to complete the mission."

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Sandy and Mark had both brown hair and a short red beard. They were of medium stature and were, apparently, brothers from two different mothers and the same father. They were quite young, as their age didn't reach the forties.

Susan was a woman nearing her fifties, with blond hair and an imponent frame and with her right ear missing.

Ethan was the youngest of the group, around his thirties, and he was the tallest between them.

They were in a room inside the guards building sitting around a circular table with cups of hot tea on the side of each of them.

Susan was explaining the information she knew about the mission.

"We know the group is formed by a former mercenary group that was going to be absorbed by the soldiers of the Shosti family. Some of them, unhappy with the status of a stable soldier, rebelled and became robbers. You all read the report about Tasart village, I don't believe they could have cleared all their traces while kidnapping so many women. Of course, our best option is to start investigating from there."

Everyone nodded.

"What about their number and capabilities? And what do we do if they use the hostages?"

It was Noah speaking. He wanted to make sure that he was ready for anything in his first battle with cultivators, even if he didn't have to participate.

"We have some description of the strongest of them and their group should amount to twenty people in total. As for the hostages, we save them if we can, we cut through them if they are used as shields."

Noah nodded, he was happy with her answer.

'In this world, the weak are to blame while the strong are to revere, I won't endanger myself to save other people I don't care about.'

A village would be wiped out because, by chance, a pack of magical beasts found it in their way, weakness was indeed a sin in this world.

Having cleared his doubts, Noah listened carefully to the questions of the other soldiers.

They set up the priorities of the mission, the plan of attack and everyone's role.

Noah had to clear anyone trying to get closer to the other four, leaving the cultivators to fight themselves with no one interfering.

"Since everything is settled, let's set off immediately. We will see each other again in two hours."

The group got dismissed and went to prepare for their mission.

Meanwhile, on the side of a small mountain covered with trees, twenty or so men were camping near a campfire.

It was winter so the temperature was low but these men didn't seem to care too much as they were doing a line to enter the bigger tent of the camp.

Cries and pleads could be heard from the tent but the men outside it would just laugh and lick their lips eager to enter.

Two men got outside of the tent and proudly announced.

"Now, there are no more virgins inside!"

Disappointed sighs and curses were spat out by the men still in line but then were suppressed by a yell coming from higher in the mountain.

"Shut up you beasts, I'm trying to concentrate here!"

The men shut up but soon whispers sounded again on the mountain.

"I heard that the boss managed to steal a magic spell's scroll from the old captain."

"Shhh, he is still in the process of learning it, he doesn't want any distraction. He let us raid the village just to make us happy and stop complaining."

"What a pity though, he had been a mage for such a long time and the only way he got a magic spell was with the rebellion."

"You chose to rebel too remember?"

"Well, we are mercenaries, we follow gold and women!"

The deserters talked for some more time and then went back to enjoy the contents of the tent.

4 days later, a carriage appeared in the outskirts of Tasart village, or what remained of it.

The houses were burned to the ground and not a living being could be seen inside it.

A group of 3 men, a woman, and a kid got out of the carriage, they were, of course, Noah and his group.

"Aww man, you are too boring, you did nothing but meditate and practice during the trip. Aren't you in the age when you want to talk about women?"

"Sanford, don't try to corrupt the kid, he still has time to become a waste of air like you."

"Captain you are so mean! I'm just trying to educate him to the way of manhood!"

Sandy and Susan bickered, they basically did it through all the trip.

Mark would just laugh on their side at every word they spoke to each other while Ethan tried to imitate Noah in his compulsive way of training.

'Don't tell me that you become an idiot when you start cultivating your dantian?'

These were his thoughts about cultivators after 4 days of travel with them.

'Now that I think about it, even Master isn't too normal with his constant smile.'

He was considering the possibility that cultivating could have some side effects on the psyche of the practitioner.

They neared the remains of the village and looked around it in search of clues of the deserters.

Dead bodies were still on the ground, left there since the raid.

As the report said, no females were among the corpses and signs of dragging were present everywhere.

"What is there in that direction that can hide 20 lustful men?"

Mark asked the question while pointing where the traces of dragging went.

"A mountain."

Answered Sandy.

"Cliffshear mountain."

Ethan pointed out.

Susan massaged her temples to hold back from yelling at the 3 of them.

"They must have gone there, we should hurry while they are still busy using the hostages."

Noah could not help to feel a bit of wariness toward the heartlessness of Susan after her proposal.

"Oh, something is coming."

"Yes, they must have been attracted by the smell of blood lingering on the ground."

"Uh?"

It was the first time that Noah wasn't the first to notice something approaching.

'Are they already mages?'

Looking at Sandy and Mark staring in the distance he followed their line of sight, focusing on a dark dot few hundreds of meters in the distance.

The dot became 2 dots and then 4.

Then the silhouettes of 6 thunder wolves were made clear.

"Kid, you take care of them, have fun."

Sandy patted Noah's shoulder and sat on the ground like he was waiting for a show to being displayed.

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The thunder wolves were all rank 2.

Generally speaking, wolves types of magical beasts had all the ability to coordinate their attacks together.

This particular one could send bolts of lightning from its mouth or coordinate with the pack to create a massive thunder that could destroy everything in its path.

If it was shot from 6 rank 2, its power could match the top tier of their rank.

Mark sat next to Sandy and they started betting on Noah's performance.

Even Ethan this time didn't show his usual competitive side and just sat on the ground looking annoyed, a fight with those magical beasts was not worth his interest.

Susan remained standing but just kept looking for more clues around the ruins of the village.

'These guys.'

Noah felt a bit irritated.

'Each one of them should be able to wipe those wolves in one hit yet they chose to let me do it. Basically, I'm here to clean the trash.'

The wolves kept getting closer and their tails were accumulating electricity to release into an attack.

"You know, I really hate being tested."

Said Noah to the group, while unsheathing his sabers and jumping towards the wolves.

His attention was on the tails of the wolves since it was from them that you could understand when the lighting bolt would arrive.

During the period of clearing nests, William gave him a slim bestiary to memorize. It had general information about magical beasts below rank 3, with some advice on how to dodge their most powerful attacks.

In the case of the thunder wolves, it was when their mouth opened to release the electricity accumulated in their tails.

There was no such thing as the perfect attack in this world, everything must have a weakness.

In the thunderbolt case, it was the long preparation required and its poor maneuverability;

In Noah's style, it was a limited area of effect.

A bolt shot from one of the wolves mouths in Noah's direction.

He hastily moved diagonally to avoid it and then resumed in his original direction.

The bolt passed near him an hit the ground, a one-meter large hole was formed with smoke coming out of it, the special ability of a rank 2 magical beast was not to be underestimated!

Another bolt shot out but Noah avoided it sliding below it at high speed, then he jumped to end up in the middle of the pack.

From the sight on a normal human, Noah only stopped in place for few instants between the 2 wolves on his sides before moving toward the other 4.

Even the 2 beasts got a little confused by his behavior and tilted their heads to follow the kid entering their group.

At that moment, a red line appeared on the 2 wolves' necks, followed by an eruption of bright red blood.

Two beast's heads fell on the ground, accompanied by their now headless bodies.

"Oh, that is indeed the speed of the Kamaitachi style, when William told me that he gave a rank 3 martial art to a kid I almost was sent to the prison for mocking him. I wonder how much power of the technique he can express."

Sandy commented from his position on the ground, while the other 2 men nodded in approval.

Even though Noah's attack was fast, it could not fool the eyes of cultivators on their level.

Only Ethan seemed to frown a bit, he clearly saw one of the attacks but completely missed the other one.

Meanwhile, Noah was still in the wolves' pack, this time the beasts were preparing a coordinated attack since the death of 2 of their companions made them realize the danger they were in.

But it was too late!

If they used immediately their most powerful attack while Noah was getting closer they could have had a chance, but now that he was among them their fate was written.

Noah seemed to casually stroll between the magical beasts but every time he passed one of them, their head would be severed and fall on the ground.

In less than a minute, the pack was no more, only headless corpses were around him.

'My forms are on a completely different level. If previously they were on the level of a middle-tier rank 2 magical beast or even lower, now they are definitely on the upper-tier! It's just a pity that I still can't cross the boundaries of the rank 3 because my body is still weak.'

Like usual, he would analyze the battle and his techniques to fix any mistake he found in it and to evaluate his power level.

'The events with the ironclad spider were really too fortunate, I don't think I could have killed him if he hadn't just evolved.'

Noah was still standing in thought when Susan came back to the group sitting on the ground.

"The village has nothing of worth left in it and since the kid finished clearing up the beasts we should get going. What do you think, can he block the weak deserters while we fight?"

Sandy stood up while answering:

"The non-cultivators are of no concern for him, the low-level ones should give him some problems but he can handle it. The only problem is for how much can he hold them off, after all the "Breath" in his body is limited."

Susan nodded and then said with resolution:

"Then we end our fights before he's out of it, I don't want to be killed because some weak scum disturbed me."

"Agreed captain, and when we have completed the mission we can all go to the brothel in Mossgrove city to celebrate!"

Susan sighed loudly while massaging her temples, forcing herself not to get irritated by Sandy.

Meanwhile, on Cliffshear mountain, a middle-age muscular man was sitting cross-legged on the ground frowning deeply.

Screams and pleads would resound in the air but he seemed not to care or to be used to it.

A scroll with an intricate linear design written on it was open lying on his hands.

At some point, he raised one of his hands in the air and pointed at a tree on his side.

His whole arm lit up and a snake made of flames shot out of it, it slammed on the tree, destroying it and continuing for some meters before extinguishing.

The man smiled and opened his eyes to look at the destruction created by his first magic spell.

An area of 5 meters was wrecked by his spell, with some small flames still burning the destroyed tree.

The man nodded with satisfaction and put the scroll on the lingering flames burning it without any hesitation while deep in thought.

'I finally managed to learn the flame snake magic, the rebellion was totally worth it!'

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The group of the Balvan family arrived at the base of Cliffshear mountain.

They jumped off the carriage and stared silently at the trees filling it.

Everyone was in a serious mood since the battle was imminent, the usual exchange of jokes and scoldings was absent, only concentration could be seen in their eyes.

Even if they could arrive sooner if they ran all the way here, they prioritized their physical condition, so they rested during the night in the remains of the village and took the carriage before dawn.

It was still some hours before midday but, even though the sun was high in the sky, the field of view in the mountain's path was limited by the numerous trees on it.

Mark was the first to break the silence.

"They will obviously have sentries around their camp if they are still here."

Everyone nodded.

"The terrain is not in our favor but we should have better scouts, once we find them we can prepare a plan of attack."

Susan said.

Sandy put his arm around Mark's neck and proudly announced.

"The best the outer ring has to offer."

Noah finally understood why they were able to spot the thunder wolves before him.

'So that's why. I wonder if they are just good scouts or if their mental energy is so high that they can take on that role easily.'

He was continuously trying to figure out the real strength of his companions but they rarely showed any clues about their powers.

With the exception of Ethan, he didn't even know what kind of weapon they used.

"You two go ahead and point the way, we will follow. "

After Susan's order, they entered the mountain forest following Mark and Sandy.

They would often go in two different ways before regrouping and point a direction on the ones following them.

Few hours passed by, with no one in the group speaking a word during their exploration.

Then, Sandy and Mark went toward them signaling to be silent.

They crouched on the ground and spoke with a soft voice.

"We found the encampment a few minutes in that direction. It should be them since there were screams of women coming from there."

"The common soldiers are tired and sleepy, I believe that they did nothing but * those women these days. You are lucky Noah."

Since it was his job to take care of the non-cultivators this was good news for him. Apparently, no one cared about the fates of the hostages at this point.

"What about cultivators?"

Asked Susan.

"There is the one in the highest place of the encampment that must be the stronger of them, we could not find more about him for fear of being discovered."

"There are 5 of them worthy of our concern after him, the others are just weaklings for the kid."

Sandy and Mark would explain things by dividing the explanation between the 2 of them, Noah was almost certain that cultivating would cause some brain damage by now.

He thought that he had to ask his Master about this matter once he came back.

"How do we proceed?"

He asked and everyone's gaze went on Susan since she was the captain of the mission.

"I will jump straight in the middle of them and face the strongest guy. While they are busy following me, Mark, Sandy, and Ethan will ambush the cultivators trying to lower their number while Noah will storm between the weaklings. Once the situation stabilizes, we go hunt for the remaining ones. Remember your roles."

'She is actually planning to be the bait?'

Noah was doubtful but still decided to follow with the plan, after all, if Susan wanted to take the danger on her, so be it.

They moved toward the perimeter of the encampment and when everyone was ready, Susan jumped out in the open, speeding toward her target.

"Just follow us kid."

Sandy said as he and Mark took out a short knife from their clothes.

Ethan unsheathed his greatsword so Noah did the same with the sabers on his back.

The normal soldiers didn't notice Susan figure as she was too fast, it was only when she was halfway through the camp that someone gave the alarm.

"Enemy attack!"

The camp fell into chaos as the soldiers went to pick their swords left on the ground.

When Susan was nearing the top of the encampment, a man jumped out from a tent and directly swung his sword at her.

Susan raised her hand and the sword got deflected by it, the sound of metal against metal resounded in the air.

"Now!"

Yelled Mark, and the group still hiding in the perimeter of the camp shot out in the open.

Sandy and Mark went directly in Susan's direction while Ethan did an ample half-circle with his greatsword severing 3 soldiers in two, then he went in the same direction of the other 2.

Noah was the last one to appear and he took advantage of the confusion created by his companions to sneak out inside the group of deserters.

Blood spilled and heads flew as he ran through the group, the more he killed now while reaching Ethan and the others, the less he had to care about later when the surprise effect dispelled.

When he appeared on the other side of the encampment, 5 soldiers fell dead on the ground.

On this side, Susan was still deflecting different weapons with her hands while trying to reach her target, Sandy and Mark took out one of them with their excellent teamwork but then got encircled by 3 cultivators limiting their movements.

Ethan was fighting a tall man with a big ax alone.

At some point, Susan did a palm gesture with her hand that released a shockwave that stunned momentarily the 2 soldiers that were fighting with her.

She hurriedly grabbed the head of one of them and squeezed tightly.

The head of the unfortunate man was reduced to a meat pulp while Susan didn't even look at him before resuming her original direction, the other man on her side was too scared to react to the woman speeding through him.

Noah turned back to face the other soldiers unleashing another wave of seemingly invisible attacks, Ethan used a destructive move to shatter the big ax and then thrust his greatsword into the tall man chest.

Sandy and Mark were nimbly dodging every attack the 3 men were unleashing on them while delivering fast strikes as a counterattack, all 3 of the deserters had their wrists and arms wounded as a result.

Noah killed another 3 of them leaving standing 2 men that blocked his attacks.

Only 7 deserters remained alive, with 3 of them injured.

At that point, a ball of flame fell from the highest point of the encampment and stopped on the ground in the middle of the battlefield, Susan's figure was barely visible between the flames.

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The battlefield became silent.

Susan was the strongest of the group from Balvan mansion and right now she was convulsing on the ground engulfed by flames.

'Fuck!'

Noah was the first to react.

He hastily slashed the throat of one of the men in front of him while he was still stupefied by the unexpected event and then got ready to run away.

He didn't know much about magic spells but he was sure of one thing.

'If that man can do that attack again we are doomed! I must retreat! I will never be the last one to escape again!'

He swore this to himself since the events near Lilun village, if you have to escape be the first to do that!

This was the main reason why he was the first of the group to react, he was constantly wary of any unexpected thing that could happen, like a rank 3 magical beast rising from a shore made of bones, or a misleading report not mentioning a mage in the group of deserters.

Before he even managed to turn back though, a shockwave ran from the flames, extinguishing them.

Susan's figure struggled to get up, showing to the onlookers the pitiful state she was in.

She was completely naked without any hair left on her body.

Her skin was almost completely burned and crackling sounds came out of it.

She was missing her right arm, that probably took most of the destructive power of the spell, while her left hand had only 2 fingers left.

A guttural voice came out of her mouth while she spoke slowly.

"Can... hold back him. Complete... mission."

Then she jumped back on the man now visible high in the mountain path.

He was staring at her with a slight smile, apparently satisfied by the damage dealt by his spell, yet his complexion looked pale like he was tired.

Noah was stupefied.

He was ready to run away but then he saw what should have been a burned corpse getting up and speak.

'She should have been killed already just by the injuries created by the flames, not even considering the impact of the attack hitting her. Is this a real cultivator?'

He looked at the remaining man standing in front of him, about how he blocked his attack, and could not help but feel like he was an ant fighting another ant.

'I really am incredibly weak.'

He wasn't thinking only about his physical power but also about his mental state.

Seeing Susan's determination inspired him.

As if sensing the change in his mental state, his acupoints started absorbing "Breath" at a speed like never before, slowly refilling the "Breath" he used till now.

The man seeing the kid slowly moving toward him felt a chill down his spine and got ready to block any incoming attack.

"It's useless."

Said Noah walking past him.

"You are already dead."

The sword in his hands, held in a horizontal position in front of his chest, divided itself into two halves, then a red line appeared from his head till his waist.

Blood sprouted from the red line as the man was cut vertically in two.

A weak cultivator could do nothing against the full power of a rank 3 martial art!

Even though Noah could have defeated him conserving most of his "Breath" that would have taken some time, and he was eager to give support to the other people in his group.

'Even if I can't defeat the mage, they probably can if they work together. I have to use my last full power attack wisely.'

The "Breath" in his body was halved by his last strike but now he could assist the others in their fight.

Meanwhile, Sandy and the others had resumed their fights after seeing Susan's attempt to buy time for them.

Ethan was fighting with the man that tried to block Susan previously while the brothers were still dealing with the 3 injured cultivators.

Ethan seemed at a disadvantage against the maneuverability of the man's short sword and he kept getting wounded superficially by its fast attacks.

On the other side, Sandy and Mark seemed close to delivering a fatal attack to one of the men surrounding them but they would always be obstructed at the last moment by the other two, the advantage in numbers was slowing the arrival of victory in their fight.

Noah chose to help the brothers since their fight was the easiest to end with his help and since he wasn't too sure that he could block the short sword of the man if he focused him.

Uncaring of their bleeding wrists, the 3 deserters were still delivering powerful blows containing great force, they used their martial arts empowered with their higher tier of "Breath" to continuously unleash peak rank 2 attacks.

Noah could do that only twice and that was because his martial art was rank 3!

Even though theirs was an art of a lower level, their attacks contained the same power and the deserters had fewer restrictions in their usage.

Yet, the brothers would always dodge them while delivering swift counterattacks that would either be blocked by one of the deserters or wound them lightly.

Wounds kept accumulating on the trio but they held still, waiting for their boss to finish his fight with the almost dead woman.

Another counterattack was launched by Sandy but was blocked by one of the men confidently, he was preparing himself to deliver another powerful blow when he felt a sudden pain to his back.

He turned around to see a kid with black hair in a ponytail getting away from him at high speed.

He had icy-blue eyes and donned a tight black kimono, in his hands there were two black sabers, one of them had dripping blood on it.

He had no time to say anything because Mark didn't let this occasion slip by and planted his knife in the man chest, the man died still wondering where the kid came from.

After one of the 3 deserters died, the fight became completely one-sided and Mark and Sandy took out the already injured opponents in a few rounds of attack.

They didn't waste any time as they sped toward Ethan's battle, Mark only slightly nodded at Noah's figure following them at some distance.

Ethan was having a rough time, his opponent was slowly overwhelming him, locking him into a passive position.

There were a lot of light wounds on Ethan's arms and a deep one on his left leg that was hindering his movements.

The brothers arrived at full speed stopping the man from inflicting another heavy wound on Ethan and then, together with him, unleashed a series of attacks on the encircled deserter.

Seeing that the situation wasn't looking good, the man chose to escape, getting purposedly injured to escape the encirclement and then running at full speed toward the forest.

But then, a black saber appeared in front of him.

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In order to block the saber, the man had to stop his escape, allowing the guards from Balvan mansion to encircle him again.

Enraged, he tried to find the owner of the saber only to see a small figure getting away at high speed.

In this moment of distraction, Ethan stabbed him on his waist followed by Sandy and Mark's knives.

In a battle between cultivators, one instant of distraction could cause your own death.

That's why Noah's job was to ensure that the cultivators would fight themselves without interferences, and interfering was exactly what he was doing.

He would lie in wait in order to find an opportunity to cause a misstep in the enemy that would be exploited by his companions.

BOOM!

An explosion resounded from high in the mountain path.

A serpent made of flames was coiling around the deserters' boss right arm.

On the ground near him, Susan's charred corpse was lying unmoving, no more life was in it.

"Bos... s."

The man stabbed by the trio made a last plead of help before dying.

The flames slowly dissipated and the serpent with them, showing how proved the mage was by using the spell two times.

Noah, Ethan, Sandy, and Mark regrouped and stared at the pale man that killed their captain.

"Your name?"

Ethan asked, breathing heavily from the fatigue of his two consecutive fights.

"Tsk, what, the Shosti family forgot to mention it when they gave the reports?"

The group and the man stalled in order to regain some energy.

"We are simple people, reading the names of those that we have to kill is just useless work."

Sandy said shrugging his shoulders.

"My name is Orson why do you want to know it?"

"Well, you killed our captain, we need to report your name after we kill you to complain about their shitty report."

Mark's time to speak had arrived but Noah didn't care this time as he was completely focused on Orson.

'Can he do it again? Anyone of us that gets hit by that spell will probably die, but Susan managed to make him use it two times. Can he do it a third time?'

"Oh, no wonder she was so strong, it was your captain! Her body should have reached the limits of rank 3. What a pity, if she was a noble she would have had the technique needed to break through rank 4 but alas..."

Orson seemed really sad for Susan as he kept on speaking.

"You know, that's why I rebelled. I have been a rank 1 mage for ten years now and managed to obtain a spell only by stealing it. Don't you think that it's unfair? Don't you think that someone as talented as her, as talented as ME has the right to obtain what he deserves?"

His speech was about the common problem in the human's cultivation world.

Noble families would accumulate wealth and techniques to have a monopoly over them. Anyone not belonging to their inner circle could just serve for life hoping to be rewarded accordingly, or resort to illicit ways.

Ethan breath returned to a normal pace, he looked at his companion and nodded.

"Shall we start?"

Orson shook his head but got in position to fight, he took a big iron mace from the ground with his left hand and yelled:

"Come then!"

The group waited no more and jumped right at him.

Ethan was the first to clash with the mace causing the ground beneath him to crackle, Sandy and Mark slowed their pace on purpose to deal with Orson's sides.

Before the brother's knives could hit Orson though, the serpent of flames appeared again, this time protecting him.

Sandy and Mark had to halt their charge while Ethan was pushed three steps back with his hands lightly burned.

The serpent disappeared and the exchange of attacks and defense repeated itself.

It seemed that if Orson used the magic spell only to protect himself, its consumption of mental energy would be lower.

After three rounds of attacks, Ethan's left arm was hanging on his side while he wielded his greatsword with his right hand. The wound on his left leg was constantly spilling blood and he was deadly pale, he probably could hold only for another round.

Sandy and Mark were relatively better, the fire only touched them superficially and managed to cause only some spots of burned flesh.

Orson, on the other side, was panting heavily, he looked completely drained, like after a full session of training in the Kesier rune.

It was obvious that the next round would be the last.

Ethan's eyes became resolute as he charged recklessly toward Orson.

Like the times before that, his greatsword met the mace and he pushed hard with all the strength he had left to lock Orson in that position.

The attacks of the brothers arrived as punctual as always, aiming for the blind spots of the mage.

At one step from death, Orson resolutely chose to raise once again his right arm to unleash his strongest attack.

The arm lit up and a serpent of flames was being formed when a blade of wind, with the form of a crescent moon, hit the arm and severed it!

Noah was a few meters away from the mage, kneeling on the ground and managing to keep his upper body erected by pointing with his sabers on the ground.

He had watched the whole battle from a small distance away and understood one thing: the flames originated from his right arm.

So he waited till Orson exposed his arm again to deliver the only ranged attack that his art had.

The execution was perfect and the magic got interrupted, Sandy and Mark used this chance to directly cut off Orson's head with two strikes from opposite directions.

The mage was dead!

Noah and Ethan immediately fell on the ground, one had his "Breath" completely drained while the other was heavily injured.

The brothers, on the contrary, were still standing looking around the battlefield and on Orson body.

After their search, they came back to where Ethan and Noah were resting.

"No traces of the scroll containing the magic spell, he must have destroyed it."

"Except for some starving women that survived and us, everyone is dead."

They divided their lines as usual but there was a trace of sadness this time and not the usual irony.

Noah looked at the charred corpse at some distance from them and spoke.

"If she didn't make Orson use the spell twice, at least another one of us would be dead."

Everyone nodded and bowed to the corpse of their former captain.

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Read Birth of the Demonic Sword - Chapter 33 - 33. Rarity online free - Novel Full

Inside the carriage, the group from Balvan family was returning to the mansion. Having completed the mission, there was no reason for them to remain in Cliffshear mountain.

They had signaled the place where the encampment was and left the hostages there waiting for someone from the noble families to pick them up, in a matter between cultivators those women were treated only as casualties and were for normal soldiers to handle.

The atmosphere during the trip back was pensive, everyone was silent with their mind wandering.

Sometimes their gaze would lie on a charred corpse lying on the wooden seats of the carriage, sometimes on Orson's head on the floor.

After he stared at the mage's head, Noah broke the silence wanting clarity on a pressing question in his mind.

"Is it really that hard to get a magic spell if you don't belong to the nobles' inner circle?"

The group was a little surprised form the question but then realized that this companion that fought with them was, in fact, a kid.

Mark did a complex smile and spoke.

"I'm sure that your Master already said something to you but I'll try to be more precise. You were probably misled to think that if you put enough efforts inevitably you will receive rewards. That is true only until a certain level."

He pointed at the corpse on the ground and continued.

"Susan was the third strongest in the outer ring, below your Master and his captain. She served in the guards of the outer ring for more than twenty years. Do you know the reason why she could not receive a technique that surpassed rank 3?"

Noah's answer was immediate.

"Because she didn't join the inner ring."

Sandy broke the silence too and corrected him.

"No, because she had talent and will."

Mark nodded to the answer of his brother and continued.

"You saw the power of a magic spell now, what would happen if the nobles gave that kind of power to someone that might become stronger than them?"

'One single cultivator having a magical spell could kill and injure 5 of them, with some of them stronger than him in other aspects.'

The answer this time was obvious.

"Rebellion."

Mark nodded, his smile becoming more complex.

"Exactly, that talented person might not welcome the control of the noble's families anymore after he obtains the power to fight them. You probably thought that you could find some ways around it since you got rewarded with a rank 3 art but let me tell you: that was the most valuable reward they could give you. Remember that you gave a "Breath" blessing, which is one of the most precious treasures for low-level cultivators, for it and you had your Master help in the delivery. I'm afraid that if you lacked one of those you would have received only some amount of gold as a reward."

Noah remembered how just by standing next to that blue mineral his injuries were healed and his second cycle was completed.

'That was indeed a good stone, no wonder they gave me such a high tier martial art for it.'

"With magic spells, the process is more complex."

Mark kept explaining.

"The first issue is that you need to be at least a rank 1 mage to learn it otherwise your sea of consciousness won't be able to bear the pressure of its diagram, many cultivators would rather train in other aspects that give an earlier increase of power than spend hours looking at a rune for many years. This greatly reduces the number of people that can strive for a magic scroll."

"After that, there is a problem with the aptitude of a person. If your aptitude doesn't match the element of the spell its power will be immensely reduced. Mages would rather serve a noble family that has accumulated a sufficient variety of spells rather than going around stealing scrolls only to end up with something that they would rather not use. I believe that Orson chose to rebel when he finally found the spell matching his aptitude."

'So his aptitude was fire. I won't know mine until my dantian is formed which means that it's useless to search for a way to get spells until then.'

"The last thing is the rarity of your element. The most common spells are of the fire and water element, followed by wind and earth. Thunder has a spot over them surpassed only by light and darkness. Of course, the rarer the element the stronger would be the spell compared to those on the same level."

This was the first time Noah heard something like this. He could not help but interrupt Mark explanation to ask:

"Why is there such a division?"

Mark had to think for a bit before continuing his speech.

"Well, truth is that the creation of spells is a process that went on for thousands of years and only top cultivators with a specific talent in magical diagrams can attempt to draw them. According to the common knowledge, the rarer one element the harder is to create diagrams of it, that's why there are fewer spells of them and that's where they took the name 'rare'."

Mark then pointed at himself and his brother.

"Our element is thunder. Even if it's a rare element, with the accumulation the Balvan family has they should have some scrolls of it. Yet, do you think that they will give them to us even if we enter the inner circle?"

Sandy didn't give time for Noah to answer and spoke directly.

"The answer is: probably no! With the character that we have, the inner circle will never allow us to have that kind of power, they simply don't trust us. Why do you think we are still wandering in the outer circle doing these kinds of missions while we both have reached the level of rank 1 mage?"

'So they were indeed mages and not simply talented scouts.'

"My brother is right, our power would increase too much with a spell of a rare element in our set of abilities. Because of that, the inner circle would not let us in and will just leave us to age in the outer circle."

Noah was confused.

"Then why do you still serve the Balvan family?"

Mark's smile showed only helplessness at this point.

"Because it is the only place where we can receive something for our cultivation, and in the bigger families there is only more competition for rewards at our level. The only option would be the academy in the Royal city but alas..."

He winked at Noah.

"They only enroll people below 18 years old."

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Since Noah found a way inside the cultivation world he completely disregarded any other type of knowledge, not that he had time to study anyway with his rigid schedule.

He only had a basic understanding of the political power system of this country and of the environment near his family's mansion.

The subdivision of power was similar to the feudal system from his previous world: small-size noble families would pay taxes to the medium-size ones in order to keep their territory; like this till the large-size noble families that answered only to the Royal family.

Any large-size noble family would be in control of a city, like the Shosti family with Mossgrove city, and would run it according to the orders of the Royal dynasty.

Yet, Noah's mind was mostly oblivious to any names concerning these topics, he focused so much in cultivation that he only barely remembered that this nation was called Utra.

'So there is an alternative! I would have known more if the cultivation topic wasn't so hidden to the public. I need to have one or two backup plans for when I leave the family.'

If there was one thing Noah was sure of, it would have been his departure from the Balvan family in the future.

He knew that his possibilities were limited in that environment due to his status as a bastard so he had no plan to stay, he would rather be a fugitive like Orson than spend his whole life serving nobles, hoping one day to be rewarded.

'Unfortunately, I'm still weak, I should wait for my dantian to form and for my aptitude to be determined before thinking of running away. I would also need a general plan on how to become stronger without the nobles' support and there is the situation about my mother too...'

There were no immediate solutions to his problems, so he just chose that he would think about them when he had a clearer understanding of things.

Life kept going as usual in the outer circle.

With the exception of the ceremony for Susan's funeral, Noah did nothing but training and clearing magical beasts' packs.

It was a few days after he became 12 that a big event happened: his acupoints had completely stopped absorbing "Breath", his third cycle was completed!

In the next cycle, he will obtain a rank 2 body!

Right now, Noah was in the torture room below the guards building, he was screaming in pain tied to a metal table.

Willam was next to him, yelling the number of the acupoints he was going to destroy.

"All of the seven acupoints are destroyed, the whirl is forming, focus!"

Noah was, by then, used to the treatment or at least to its procedure.

The pain he would feel from having his acupoints broken was still as terrible as the other times, no matter how much he increased his mental energy he had to put all his concentration on managing to stay conscious.

The usual feeling of death approached Noah's mind but that could not make him flicker, he was completely focused on the "Breath" accumulating over his back.

After reaching a decent amount of density, he manipulated the "Breath" to enter and fill the space where his acupoints previously were.

Yet, at that point, something unexpected happened: the "Breath", instead of accumulating in the empty places, was absorbed by his body.

The most worrying thing was that Noah didn't feel any increase of strength, the "Breath" had completely disappeared inside his body while the feeling of death was still getting closer at high speed.

He tried again to flow "Breath" in the acupoints' previous spots but the same thing happened.

He was at loss of what he had to do!

Any strand of "Breath" he tried to accumulate would be absorbed by his body and he didn't even know why!

At that point, a drop of a familiar black liquid got expelled by his right arm, seeing it Noah finally understood: he was going through the advancement of rank of his body!

'Is the "Breath" being absorbed pushing my body over the rank? Does this means that I can't form acupoints until my body advances?'

He could not think of any different explanations and he had no time to ask William because of the darkness getting closer in his mind so he just went all out with the absorption process.

He continuously absorbed "Breath" without even stopping to check if his acupoints were forming.

The black liquid began to be ejected from his body at high speed.

William was holding him down watching this process with worry.

He understood that his disciple encountered some kind of problem but there was nothing that he could do to help, so he just let his hands getting stained by the black substance while keeping him still on the table.

Meanwhile, Noah was being entirely covered by the liquid as he hurried in the absorption process to avoid being engulfed by the darkness.

Then, finally, "Breath" began to accumulate forming his acupoints.

He hastily isolated the newly formed acupoints waiting for them to solidify and link themselves to his body.

He completely disregarded the pain caused by the connection process and focused only on the barriers incubating the mixture of "Breath" and shards of bone.

The mixture, in the end, became solid and he felt an immense wave of strength running through him.

Like the previous times, he waited some more time before releasing the barriers around the newly formed acupoints in order to be completely sure that the treatment went well.

His body felt extremely strong.

His mind was tired and his mental energy was almost completely expended, but there was no pain coming from his back.

He gave a powerful pull with his arms and the metal chains tying his hands broke.

Then he did the same with his legs and the chains holding them shattered.

He stood up on the metal table trying to sense his body but his mind was too tired from the pain he had endured to size his new strength precisely.

William, in the meantime, was smiling warmly looking at him, he was proud of this disciple continuously surpassing any difficulty with determination and bravery.

Noah got down from the table and bowed to his Master, it was the first time he could do that right after finishing the treatment.

"Thanks a lot, Master. Oh right, it seems that since my body broke through I won't need to be bedridden this time so we can spar tomorrow, I'm eager to feel the strength of my new body!"

The smile on William's face disappeared, replaced by an irritated expression.

"You damned workaholic, tomorrow you will clean this room to get rid of the filth that your body expelled! And you will do extra missions to repay my handcuffs!"

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When Noah woke up the next morning he clearly felt the increase of strength of his body.

He had taken a bath before going to sleep to wash away the filth his body secreted during the advancement of rank and now he was standing in his room sensing attentively any change he could feel.

The most immediate thing was that his muscles increased in size and were more defined, not an inch of fat was present on them, giving to Noah's figure a slender and sturdy appearance even though he was still quite short.

Yet, the biggest changes happened inside his body.

The seven acupoints on his back were absorbing "Breath" at a speed at least two times higher than they did in the previous cycle.

The quantity that his body was holding had already increased threefold and its quality seemed higher!

'With this amount, I can launch full strength attacks at least six times before running out of "Breath"! I'm not even factoring the new speed at which I'm recovering it, I might as well have the energy for another attack when the other six are used, and this while the fourth cycle is not even complete!'

The newly found power was making Noah eager to spar with his Master so he hurriedly donned a white kimono and got ready to exit the room before a thought stopped his tracks.

'Right, first I have to clean the torture room.'

CLANG!

The sound of swords clashing resounded in a room of the guards building.

Noah was fighting against William with decision and resolution while getting used to his body.

It was some time since William had to drop the wooden stick an use a real sword to block Noah's attacks.

Nevertheless, Noah was never able to surpass his Master's defense, William would just block any attack coming at him while commenting on its execution.

Yet, the happiness for his body's improvement wasn't present on Noah's expression, which exuded only coldness and concentration.

He had met with his mother before going to the sparring session and was crestfallen to see a big bruise on her face right under the left eye.

Some sort of pressure had formed in his mind, hurrying him to improve faster before something irreversible happened.

William noted his disciple state of mind and raised the stakes of the training as a form of respect for his determination.

It was only when Noah was breathing heavily and sweating profusely that his Master decided to stop the sparring and sit on the floor to discuss things with him.

Noah sat on his knees on the spot in front of him and sorted the questions he wanted to ask.

"So, how is a rank 2 body?"

William started the conversation.

"It's really amazing! My strength and speed rose to an absurd level, I believe that now I completely crossed the boundaries of a rank 3 magical beast."

William nodded. He knew that every advancement in rank comported a sudden increase in strength and that the higher the level of the rank, the bigger would be the difference with the previous level.

Noah chose his first question.

"Master, are cultivators all idiots?"

William was surprised by the question and could not help but to ask for the meaning of it.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, in the mission against Orson I realized that cultivators have... well... peculiar traits in their personality."

William was at first confused but then realized something looking at his disciple complex expression and became irritated.

"You, the kid that at the age of 8 scammed guards for techniques, the kid that in 4 years did nothing but train and fight, the kid that can't think of anything than cultivation all day, are saying that cultivators are peculiar?"

Noah seemed to be taken aback by these words but just put a slight smile on his face as an answer.

William shook his head and continued.

"It's not the cultivation process that causes these peculiarities, rather a person needs those to keep pursuing power. Only a strong personality can continue on this long road unmoved by the many difficulties that it will encounter."

Noah was enlighted.

The body-nourishing methods required constant meditation and great patience to be trained, and those were the easiest techniques to practice in.

Most of the people would just grow bored or tired of such methods, no wonder they could not pursue higher powers.

Who would be willing to practice every day in a martial art till his body was exhausted? Who could spend hours looking at rune that would cause him pain and exhaustion?

Only strong-willed people! And they generally had some particularity in them that were unwilling to abandon, like Noah's stubbornness in his search for power or Sandy's uncaring attitude.

"I think I understand now. There is another thing though."

Noah was about to ask about the academy in the Royal city but then a doubt crossed his mind. He held back from speaking the last part of the sentence and changed its subject at the last moment.

"Can-can I take a look at the information about cultivators in this country? You know, the knowledge about this topic is quite hidden and I wouldn't even know where to look for it."

William was astonished but then nodded for a few times with a radiant smile on his face.

"You finally want to know more about this country's history! Don't worry, I'll bring a book from the inner circle on our next appointment. To think that I would live till you asked me something not concerning training!"

Noah had a guilty smile on his face, it was only after he left the room that he could finally relax.

'I almost made a mistake. I know that Master cares about me but what would happen if he understood that I want to leave the family? Will he help me or will he punish me? Just to be sure it's better not to disclose anything with him until the Forging of Seven Hells is completed. Plus, I don't really know how to get to the Royal city anyway.'

Noah went back to his room while deep in thought.

He didn't really like hiding things from William since he helped him so much, yet his future came first.

He could not accept to be a simple guard in his life, he wanted to be free to soar the sky without anyone having the power to obstruct him and to do that he needed a power that he could not find staying in the mansion.

'It seems that it's really my nature to disappoint those that love me. I'm sorry Master, but there is no chance that I'll simply accept my status as my fate. I hope that you can understand.'

Out of habit, he picked his sabers and practiced.

The "Breath" in his body was replenished by a quarter since the sparring had ended.

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The was only one imminent problem with Noah's lifestyle.

He kept on training and fighting but one aspect was pressing him.

'How the fuck am I supposed to tell Master that the rune in my sea of consciousness is almost complete!?'

It has been only two years and a half since he started the training for his mental energy but with the advantage his rebirth gave him he had almost become a rank 1 mage.

'Well, I'll think about it after this mission. At least there were no problems with the fifth treatment.'

About one month ago he successfully completed his fourth cycle and entered the fifth one.

Apparently, the cycle right after the body's advancement was the easiest to complete, followed by the middle one that required a long time of nourishment, to the last one that forced the practitioner to break through ranks during the treatment.

'I should be able to obtain a rank 3 body some months after I turn 13, I hope that the last treatment will be similar to the fourth.'

Since the unexpected event during the treatment, Noah reflected more on the various cycles of the Seven Hells method in order to be ready when another unexpected situation appeared.

After all, one misstep during the process will cause his death or a permanent injury.

During these months, he also expanded his knowledge of this country thanks to the many books his Master kept on giving him, and, in the end, he found the information that he wanted.

'The Royal city takes the name from the dynasty that runs it and since two thousand years ago it has been called Elbas.'

Any noble family that manages to take control of the Royal city will become a dynasty.

Two thousand years ago, the Elbas family waged a war against the previous Royal family and won, since then they never lost to any rebellion against them.

One of the reasons why they resisted for so much time was the creation of the academy.

"The academy is the best training ground for the descendants of the noble families and for young talents. It was made by the Elbas family as a mean to get any talented individual of the younger generation closer to the Royal family since you can get a prestigious position in the Royal city once you graduate from the academy. It's a smart move that increases their power while lowering that of the noble families at the same time, that's why they invested so much in it giving access to many techniques and spells to its students. The problem is that I can only enter there through a competition.'

The academy enrolled twice per year and only through two methods: money and strength.

You could either pay an exorbitant sum of gold and precious materials or you had to win a competition set up by it against other contenders.

Needless to say, Noah's only option was the second method.

'I even prepared a couple of escape routes for when the time comes, I can only hope that it will be near the time of one of the enrollment competition.'

After obtaining the information about the academy, Noah had just to inspect the maps about the continent of Utra to plan some escape routes toward the places where the selections would be.

While he was brainstorming about his recent discoveries, Noah was speeding through Evergreen forest.

His mission consisted in finding a group of bandits that assaulted a merchant caravan that transported body parts of magical beasts.

He had to execute the bandits and retrieve the goods.

His Master assured him that they weren't extremely powerful cultivators and that he could choose the reward for the mission between the stolen merch.

'The reports said that this group calls themselves "Gray Shadows" and they have seven members. In the last year, they operated in the zone near Evergreen forest so their base should be here but even after some investigations, they have never been found. I guess that Sandy and Mark are busy somewhere else for Master to choose me for this mission.'

With his strong mental energy, Noah was one of the best candidates for this mission since he could sense clearly the environment around him.

It was his second day inside the forest but he still had to find traces of the bandits.

Even though the surface of Evergreen forest was bigger than the one the Balvan family ruled on and was full of dangerous magical beasts, the area near its perimeter was relatively safe since the Shosti family would periodically send soldiers to clear it from dangers in order to make the merchant routes safer.

'Master said that if I find nothing after one month of search, I can just give up and go back to the mansion.'

So, its solitary mission had begun. Noah would travel during the day looking for traces of the Gray Shadows and train at night in the Kesier rune.

He liked this type of mission because it allowed him to learn how to survive in the wilderness, he took it as a preparation for his big escape in the future.

After one week of exploration, he still ended up with nothing.

Noah didn't really want to fail the mission, or to say it better he didn't want to give up the free reward from the bandits' deposit.

He stood on a tree deep in thought until he had an idea.

'What if I follow a caravan?'

The idea seemed worth a shot so he moved toward the perimeter of the forest in the direction of Mossgrove city.

He waited there for three days, letting pass the caravans that were too small or looked like they weren't carrying anything important until he finally found the perfect target.

It was a big caravan made of two different carriages. It had a big red emblem inscribed on its side representing a tiger with wings on his back, Noah supposed that it belonged to one of the middle-size noble families in the Shosti's domain.

One of the carriages was ridden by a group of soldiers that alternated the coachman role between themselves, while on the other one a bald fat man without any beard and a young girl were in the rider's position.

'That one looks like the ideal target of the Gray Shadows, the soldiers don't look that strong but for a noble family to send them to protect a merchant it means that the goods they carry should have some value.'

Mental energy could be used to scan the surroundings but also to evaluate someone's strength, yet before becoming a mage its precision would still be somewhat lacking.

To evaluate these soldiers though, Noah's level was more than enough.

'So it's decided, I'll follow them!'

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The caravan took a path inside Evergreen forest.

Noah was jumping from tree to tree following it at quite some distance, he was waiting for the moment the Gray Shadows appeared.

He was quite bored, all he could do was wait for something to happen or to enter his range of perception, a big contrast with his usual days spent on training until he had to sleep to recover.

Meanwhile, on the caravan.

Quinn was a merchant that took on his family's job at the age of 16.

He was talented in the art of trade and managed to raise his position till being the preferred merchant of the Merger family, a middle-size noble family under the domain of the Shosti family.

Right now, he was doing a trip back to Merger mansion, situated on the other side of the forest not far from its perimeter.

He had successfully sold the goods given to him by the noble family in the market of Mossgrove city and made quite a sum.

Since the business trip went well, his mood was joyous as he took the shorter road back to mansion uncaring of the dangers of the forest, after all, he had in his defense the soldiers of a noble family!

'Haha, if my ancestors were to see me now! I singlehandedly raised my family status so much that a noble family actually protects me during my travels!'

These were his thoughts.

Of course, he knew that the soldiers' mission was to protect the goods and not him but his mood was unaffected since his trip this time was really profitable.

'After I complete the trade and give back the accounted goods, I will have enough to retire and build a small mansion. Who knows, in a few generations my family might become a noble one!'

His gaze involuntarily shifted to the young girl next to him.

She was his only remaining family since his wife passed away, yet, this daughter of his inherited his talent as a dealer.

Quinn taught her all his knowledge and experience but never thought that one day he would be near setting his own mansion.

'I wanted her to marry someone from a small-size family but if I wait a bit she could actually strive to be the first wife in a middle-size one! After all, her relationship with the young master of the Merger family is not too bad.'

Quinn was lost in his thoughts while the caravan kept going. He would just plan things and sort the inventory during the uneventful travel.

However, one week after his entrance in Evergreen forest, something unexpected happened.

An arrow, shot from behind the trees, hit the horse carrying the carriage in the front.

The horse fell dead on the ground immediately as three figures came out from their hidings.

The soldiers got enraged and jumped off the carriage yelling at them.

"How do you dare to assault the carriage of the Merger family! You must be tired of living!"

The three figures had gray hooded cloaks that completely covered their faces and large sleeves that hid their hands.

One of them started laughing when the soldier threatened them.

"Haha, did you hear him second shadow, third shadow? He actually thinks that we are scared of them!"

Another one answered,

"First shadow, don't you worry, they will soon understand."

Like it was some sort of signal, the three hooded men directly attacked the soldiers, throwing knives and unsheathing short swords from their sleeves.

The soldiers blocked their attacks and started to encircle them.

There were, after all, five soldiers against the three of them, the advantage in numbers was showing itself.

At that moment though, another arrow shot from behind the trees and hit one of the soldiers' legs and two more hooded men came out from their hidings.

With the injured soldier the thieves were having the advantage, yet they didn't seem too focused on killing their enemies.

Quinn was hiding with his daughter inside the carriage since the assault started, he knew that the goods were the soldier's core mission so he smartly chose to hide between them.

He was quite relaxed in the whole process since he had complete confidence in the power of a middle-size family.

"Don't you worry, simple thieves won't dare to kill anyone wearing the emblem of a noble family, even if they resorted to a life of crimes they still fear the power behind nobles."

He was consoling his daughter when a voice interrupted him.

"He's right cutie, we are too scared of the powerful cultivators protecting them. However, that doesn't mean that we will simply run away when we see their emblem."

Quinn was startled, a hooded figure was at the end of the carriage looking at the goods.

He did a hand gesture and all the inventory was sucked inside his sleeve.

"Many thanks!"

The thief lightly bowed and then hurried outside the carriage, in a few instants he had disappeared between the trees.

Quinn lost all his strength at this sight and released a weak statement.

"I'm ruined."

Turning back time a bit, Noah was still following the caravan.

It had been seven days but there was still no sign of the Gray Shadows.

'This is so boring! Don't tell me that it was the wrong decision to follow this caravan and that they went after the poorer ones.'

Noah was hiding at the top of a tree but doubts were starting to accumulate in his mind.

He got ready to kill some time by looking at the rune when he sensed something getting near the position of the caravan.

He completely switched his state of mind to total concentration and stared at the unfolding of the events on the ground.

He saw a hooded man shooting an arrow to kill the horse in the front carriage and then three men engaging a fight with the soldiers.

He saw the soldiers slowly going into a passive position when the other two men appeared, but he waited.

He had to know how they were going to steal the goods and where they would put them.

As for the fate of the caravan, he couldn't care less.

At that point, a fast figure went inside the rear carriage and came out after a few instants. Some seconds later, the merchant came out of the carriage crawling on the ground and pointing in the direction of where the figure went.

The merchant's skin was pale and he seemed devoid of any life.

Quinn's condition made Noah understand the situation.

'The goods have been stolen!'

Once the realization lightened up his mind, he wasted no more time and jumped directly in pursuit of the figure in the forest.

If someone looked from above the forest, he would see a black dot running at high speed on the top of the trees.

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Noah was jumping from tree to tree at high speed toward the faint presence that he felt with his mind.

When the figure entered his field of view, he slowed his pace to make sure that he would not be noticed.

The member of the Gray Shadows kept running for about an hour deep in the forest unaware of a black figure hiding in the trees behind him.

Then he stopped in a seemingly random location and hid in a bush, probably waiting for any pursuer to show up.

After a quarter of an hour, he got out of the bush convinced that no one was following him.

He happily folded his sleeve and raised his now exposed right arm into the air, then he closed his eyes in concentration while furrowing his brows.

A twinkle shot out from his hand and various items appeared on the ground. There were magical beasts' parts, weapons, bottles with shining liquids and so on, all of those had appeared out of nowhere.

The hooded man was about to sort the items on the ground when a black blade appeared on his throat, followed by a cold threatening voice.

"Tell me how you did that and I'll let you live."

The man realized that he had been followed and cursed internally.

'I'm the fastest in the Gray Shadows but my brothers should be near here by now, maybe if I stall for a bit...'

The plan of the hooded man was simple but effective, so he went for it.

"Oh, you know, it's a special technique passed down by the ancestors of my fa-!"

He could not finish his sentence that a sharp pain coming from his right shoulder assaulted him forcing him to crouch on the ground holding his shoulder.

However, when his hand reached for the spot where the pain came from he only felt a warm liquid flowing from it.

He opened his eyes to look at it and discovered that his right arm had disappeared from its spot and was on the ground staining it of a red color.

Before he could say anything though, the black blade reappeared on his throat and the cold voice sounded again.

"Next is your left arm if you don't speak."

The Gray Shadow was terrified by now and hastily explained with a trembling voice.

"I-It's the space-ring on my right hand, sir. If you use your mental energy you can bind it and use it to store non-living things. It's all yours, just give me one second to remove my binding."

"No need."

The cold voice sounded one last time and the head of the thief fell on the ground severed by its body.

Noah gave a look the severed arm on the ground an found a plain-looking silver ring.

He took it in his hands and focused his mental energy to inspect it.

A type of connection was created and the half-transparent image of the ring appeared in Noah's sea of consciousness.

When Noah focused on the ring, he could see a separated space of 30 cubic meters inside it full of precious material and similar.

He was amazed!

He shifted his gaze toward the items on the ground and just by willing it, they got sucked inside the space of the ring.

He tried to do the same with the corpse of the thief and the same thing happened.

Then he concentrated again on one of the items inside the ring and it suddenly appeared in front of him.

He put the item back in the separated space and inspected the ring carefully, from every perspective it looked perfectly like a normal ring, only by inspecting it with mental energy you could vaguely sense that something was off with it.

'This thing is amazing! There is no way that I give it back. If I just hide it under my clothes no one would be able to find it!'

While he thought of this, he sensed six presences coming from the forest in his direction.

'Right, let's solve this issue first.'

The remaining six members of the Gray Shadows arrived in the spot where Noah once was and got perplexed seeing the stains of blood on the ground.

One of them touched them and spoke in a worried voice.

"The blood is still warm, I think that seventh shadow was followed and injured, as we all know his battle capabilities are pretty inconsistent."

Another one of them answered him.

"What do we do now? All the stolen goods are in his space-ring and, without it, we are just some lousy robbers."

'So everything they have is inside the ring, no need to waste time then.'

Noah was back in his hiding position at the top of a tree listening attentively to the conversation of the thieves to make sure that there were no more secrets to uncover.

Once he was sure that the ring was the main reason they managed to operate in secret for so much time without getting caught, he slashed the air in their direction and jumped toward them at high speed.

The slash created a blade of wind that crashed on the remaining members of the Gray Shadows catching them by surprise.

Two members of the group got injured instantly and were about to unsheath their weapons when a black figure passed next to them, their heads detached from their bodies as if they were only leaning on it.

Noah touched the ground and released four more wind slashes in the direction of the remaining four hooded men, then he followed the slashes without even waiting for them to hit.

Every time he moved, someone's head would be severed, he was using his rank 3 martial art at full strength!

Since he entered the fifth cycle, the limit on the usage of his full strength got raised to 10 attacks, so he wasn't going to hold himself back against six enemies.

In less than a minute, the Gray Shadows were all dead and put inside Noah's space-ring.

'I have less than two weeks left for this mission. I might have a plan on how to get the highest benefits from it, but I must first clean this place and go deeper into the forest to make it work.'

Noah hurriedly dug out the terrain that got stained by blood and put it in the space-ring, then he refilled the holes and checked again to be sure that he left no traces of his battle.

'This should be enough, now I need to find a suitable place in the forest to create a fake deposit.'

As he thought that, he ran in a straight line toward a deeper part of the forest.

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Deep into Evergreen forest, in an area not cleared by the Shosti family.

Noah was standing in front of the entrance of a small cave.

He found this place after a full day of running into the forest.

He entered the cave and carefully inspected it.

It was large 50 meters squares and was quite dark, it seemed perfect for his intentions.

Noah unloaded the contents of the space-ring in the deepest place of the cave to create false proofs that this spot was, in fact, the deposit the Gray Shadows used.

Then, he placed the bodies of the band of thieves on the ground with their respective heads near the bodies.

To better create the facade of a battle, he slashed randomly on their corpses until he was satisfied with the scene being displayed.

He was about to nod in satisfaction when a thought crossed his mind that made him reveal a complex smile.

'To think that it was less than two years ago that I first killed a human while now I'm falsifying a murder scene to steal some items.'

Since the events with Balor, he never hesitated again to kill any of his enemies.

He never thought too much of it since he had no time to think about it but now the situation was different.

He was actively covering his tracks to gain benefits from it, but the thing that made him depressed was something else.

'I don't feel anything.'

He kept on looking at the torn corpses but could not find an ounce of disgust or guilt inside him.

'It was my mission to kill them so I simply did it, now I want their items without consequences so I simply raged on their corpses.'

He stared for a few more moments before he found the answer he was looking for.

'Life has no meaning, the one of both humans and magical beasts. Yet, in a world where one being can stand at the top of all things, life's meaning might be found in power. If you are an ant, you can be swept away by a dragon that was simply passing by. If you are a dragon, you might be denied a meal by one hand gesture of a cultivator. Power stands above any definition of good and evil. And to obtain power...'

Noah's eyes in this moment of realization became extremely dark and cold.

'I must be willing to create mountains of corpses.'

A light chuckle came out of his mouth.

'I guess I'm a bad man after all.'

In the end, he smiled, this process of completely accepting himself left his mind clear of doubts and he felt freer than ever.

'Now, let's inspect the goods.'

Noah neared the pile of stolen items on the ground and started sorting it.

He looked through all the magical beasts' body parts first.

There were tails of thunder wolves, legs and pincers of ironclad spiders and many others of which Noah didn't recognize the species, but they were all separated in a different group away from the pile.

'I can't keep those, even if I hide them in the space-ring their usage is limited since I don't know anything about how to forge a weapon or vendors willing to buy them.'

He was sure of one thing: the less he stole, the fewer were the possibilities of being discovered.

Next, it was the turn of the weapons.

They were in great number and seemed all newly forged but their quality matched at most the one of his own black sabers.

'Mh, I think I can take some of these, I won't necessarily use them but they can be traded more easily. They can be my reserve funds, 10-12 of them should be a fair number.'

Noah took various weapons of different types and put them inside the space-ring and then moved the remaining 40 or so in the group with the beasts' body parts.

In the original pile of items, only boxes containing pills or bottles with strange liquids remained.

'Are these drugs? Their effect should be good if they were stored with the other items'

He took some pills in his hands and sniffed them one by one, sometimes he would feel a nauseous smell that almost made him faint, sometimes a faint odor that made the "Breath" in his body restless.

'These things are powerful! I can't take them carelessly, let's put them away for now and focus on those with a description.'

There were only three drugs that had a description attached to them, the first he picked was a box with dark bottles in it.

'Beast's essence, concentrated blood of magical beasts refined to be used by humans. Smear it on the crucial spots of the body-nourishing technique to increase the ratio of absorption of "Breath". Its effects mimic the innate absorption ability of magical beasts to increase the speed of cultivation of the body. The effects will diminish if used too many times.'

There were 12 bottles in the box, yet they instantly disappeared inside the space-ring when Noah finished reading their effects.

He didn't hesitate for even an instant in his decision of stealing them.

Then he picked a small box that contained 3 red pills.

'Inner-fire pill, ingesting it will create a burning sensation that reinforces the sphere in the sea of consciousness. Helps to stabilize the mind in the training for rank 1 mage.'

Noah looked at the 3 pills for a bit before deciding to put them into the pile of items on the ground.

'My mental energy is already nearing the level of rank 1 and the constant pressure I undergo during the treatment has the same effects. Even if I can have a small increase in mental stability, they are not worth the risk.'

The constant worry in Noah's mind was that if he stole too many items he could become one of the suspects.

Since these goods have been in the hands of the Gray Shadows for about one year, it was normal to think that they have used some of them, yet Noah still wanted to play it safe and not take unnecessary risks.

'Last one.'

He picked a tiny case that looked more refined than the others, only one big brown pill was inside.

'Earth pill, increases the density of "Breath" in the dantian. It helps in breaking stages inside one rank of the cultivator. It has a 100% success rate of breaking through the liquid-stage and an 80% success rate for the solid-stage. If used on a rank 2 dantian, the success rate diminishes by 60%.'

This was Noah's first time hearing about stages in the ranks of the dantian, actually, it was the first time he had any information about the cultivation of the dantian at all!

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In a cave, deep into Evergreen forest, a young man was sitting on the ground with his upper body naked.

He was smearing a black liquid on his back while looking at a sheet with a complex rune written on it.

'This beast's essence is good, I'm sparing weeks of nourishment using it and I still have 8 bottles left!'

The young man was of course Noah.

He was using his remaining time for the mission to make use of the goods he chose to keep.

'I bet that the Earth pill will be amazing too.'

In the end, he was too tempted to not keep the brown pill for the dantian.

After a few hours, he stopped his training in the Kesier rune even though he was far from his limit.

He never forgot that he was still in the wilderness, he had to be ready if a sudden attack of a magical beast arrived.

'I bet this smell is keeping them away.'

He looked in the direction of the corpses that were now starting to decompose.

The smell they emitted was awful but Noah didn't care, they had to stay in their spots to create the perfect scenery of a battle.

Noah had already made a plan to appear as innocent as possible and to carry it out he needed 3 days, so he decided to use the days left before them to increase his strength as much as possible.

'I can use two bottles of beast's essence per day, in four days I'll be out of them and I can start preparing for my return to the mansion. I wonder how much of the fifth cycle I can complete.'

A few days after the medicinal bottles were emptied, Noah was carrying a huge pile of items tied together with the clothes of the dead members of the Gray Shadows.

He wasn't going to lift it since its form was too uncomfortable to raise up so he simply dragged the goods with an improvised rope.

'This will leave a good amount of evidence that my version of the story is the real deal.'

Some days later.

Quinn was feeling desperate.

He was camping on the perimeter of Evergreen forest near Mossgrove city waiting for the orders of the Merger family.

Only three soldiers were left standing guard on him, while the other two went to their family mansion to inform the inner circle of the events during the trip.

Yet almost two weeks had passed, and of the envoy from the family there was still no trace.

'I'm totally ruined! Even if they manage to take back the goods I will receive no share from it. I might even lose my privileged position as their merchant. My dreams, my plans, everything is ruined!'

He was completely powerless in this situation and the remaining guards started to treat him with coldness even though the job of protecting the shipment was theirs.

In this world, it was always the weaker one to get the blame for any faulty situation.

"Tsk, if that idiot of a merchant didn't take the path in the forest, everything could have been avoided."

"You are right, now our position in the guards will be severely affected because of such a greedy man. And we also have to stand here with him!"

The guards were speaking in such a loud voice that Quinn could clearly hear them.

His daughter understood the situation and remained silent for the whole time, scared that one misspoken word could trigger the anger of the soldiers.

It was at that moment that a kid donned in black and sweating profusely exited the perimeter of the forest carrying a big pile of items tied together by clothes stained with blood.

The group from the Merger family stared with wide eyes at the small figure dragging a burden that was four times his frame.

Quinn looked at the items and recognized some of them as the ones that were stolen from him.

He hurriedly got close to the young man yelling loudly.

"Wait, wait! You, kid, where did you get those items?"

The excitement from finding his assets made him speak without any form of respect.

Noah looked at the fat merchant and answered nonchalantly while continuing o his tracks.

"Found them on the forest."

Quinn felt finally hope after two weeks of desperation.

"There are some items that were stolen from me between those that you are carrying. Please, return them to me."

Noah still didn't stop and only asked a short question.

"Do you have any proof?"

Quinn was at a loss for words and only now realized that the young man in front of him could have not been a simple one, he was, after all, coming back from the forest with a great burden on his back.

When he looked at the signs of dragging on the ground he realized with fear that he could not see where the signs started from.

'For exactly how long has he carried such a weigh?'

The guards though had slower minds than the merchant and when they overheard the conversation they arrogantly neared the items.

"Kid, if the merchant said that these are our items then so it is. If you have any complaints you can come to the Merger mansion to apply for a refund."

The soldiers only saw wealth in the pile in front of them and were already imagining the reward the family would give them when they brought them back.

Just when one of them was about to undo the packaging made of clothes to inspect the items, a kick came in his direction.

The attack was too fast and too sudden, it hit the soldier chest sending him flying away for five meters before he fell on the ground unconscious.

In the spot where he was previously, Noah was now standing with his right leg still raised.

"So you want to rob my Balvan family of the earned reward from a mission assigned by the Shosti family?"

Noah shamelessly used the names of the noble families to stop their claims on the items.

The group was stupefied seeing a kid knocking out a soldier with just one attack, their attitude became immediately more respectful.

Noah simply snorted and went back to his dragging toward Balvan mansion, yet, before he could move again, Quinn placed himself in front of him with a wide smile on his face.

"Ehm, young sir, I want to apologize for my earlier rudeness. That thing that you are carrying seems heavy, would you like a ride back to your mansion?"

'Oh, it seems that this man is not that stupid. Well, they can be my witnesses if I go with him.'

"I agree, but I have a condition."

Quinn lightly bowed while speaking.

"Please speak, young master."

Noah pointed at the pile of items behind him.

"I can take one of those things as a reward so you have to explain to me the effects of the pills in there."

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Noah was standing on Quinn's carriage listening to his explanation while moving toward Balvan mansion.

"Young master, this is a Snake essence. It's a powerful elixir that can cure any poisoning! It is made from the livers of snake-type magical beasts and..."

"Young master, that one is the Bear-Fury pill. It will give you a temporary boost in strength and resistance, not that you would need it. You are strong as a bull and graceful..."

"Oh, you surely won't need that one, young master. That's a purple mouse concentrate, they are weak magical beasts but their reproductivity is extremely high, I bet you can guess already the effects of such a fluid, eheh."

Quinn would flatter Noah every time he had the chance while explaining the properties of the many pills and elixirs in Noah's pile of items.

The goods were already moved back on the carriage before they moved again and Quinn, his daughter and one soldier from the Merger family came along.

The other one was left on the rendezvous point waiting for his family's envoy and taking care of the collapsed guard.

Yet, as Quinn's exposition continued, Noah began to feel irritated.

'What's up with this guy, does he have a crush on me? And why is he avoiding all the drugs that seem more powerful?'

His brows furrowed making the merchant panic a bit.

He understood that he overdid a little and so he moved to the next part of his scheme.

"Young master, I'm old and quite tired from all the previous events. Why don't you allow my daughter, Sophie, to keep up with the explanation? I can assure you that I taught her all my knowledge so she is more than fit for the job!"

Realization struck Noah after hearing the merchant's words.

'He wants to set me up with his daughter? Does he think I'm some kind of noble heir of the family?'

Sophie was a young girl that was about 14 years old.

She had long brown hair and green eyes, her body was gracious but was still developing the curves typical of an adult woman.

In Noah's eyes though, still tied to his previous world's canons of beauty, she was just a kid.

Sophie blushed when her father mentioned her and peeked shortly at the young man only to lower her head blushing even more evidently.

Noah was a bit stunned by her reaction.

'Am I really that good looking? Well, I do have Lily's facial attributes but I never thought that they could cause such reactions.'

Noah had taken his mother's pretty face and had her same eyes and hair, coupled with his well-toned body, his strength and the possibility that he was a noble, no common girl could possibly reject him.

Before Sophie could pick up where his father left, Noah stopped her.

"Quinn, I want to make clear that I'm just a bastard inside the Balvan family..."

He continued speaking while taking out something from the pile of goods, a fetid smell enveloped the carriage as seven heads hidden inside layers of body parts of magical beasts were made visible.

Quinn lost all colors from his face and Sophie trembled lightly at that sight.

"And I really think that it's time for you to start speaking about the important drugs."

A wave of coldness enveloped the carriage.

The guard that was on its rear had his head lowered the whole time.

The merchant and his daughter might have not understood Noah's real strength but an initiate on the road of cultivation like him knew that one had to be on the level of a real cultivator to knock up a guard with one kick.

Seeing the severed heads, Quinn understood that the kid in front of him not only did find the robbers' hiding but also killed them.

And he did all of this while being alone!

Quinn hastily kowtowed with his head hitting the floor of the carriage.

"I'm extremely sorry, please forgive this lowly merchant!"

Noah at that sight just shrugged his shoulders and pointed at the goods.

"Keep going."

When the group was nearing Balvan mansion, Noah was lying on the roof of the carriage deep in thought.

'The Inner-energy pill is my best choice for sure, but it belonged to the Merger family so I don't know if they will let me pick it.'

Apparently, most of the good drugs belonged to the stolen shipment of the merchant so he was unwilling to speak about them, at least until Noah's threat.

The Inner-energy pill was among the best pills that Quinn pointed out.

It was made by concentrating "Breath" in the form of a pill and was one of the best nourishment for the body of the cultivator.

'The other option is its worse version in the form of an elixir, but I believe that the effects will be much lower. I hope it will be enough to complete the fifth cycle.'

The Inner-energy potion was the less powerful version of the previous pill.

Noah's choice as the reward for the mission was between these two options.

'My fifth cycle is almost complete anyway, I believe that in two months my acupoints will stop working so even getting the worse version is not a bad thing. I already got the best possible rewards after all.'

His hand unconsciously went on a spot on his waist where a silver ring was hidden.

Inside it, there were 12 well-made weapons and a big brown pill.

'I can't wait to have a dantian to test the Earth pill, I bet the results will be amazing!'

A light smile appeared on his face as he was daydreaming about his future strength, but he was suddenly forced to awake by a rough voice yelling in their direction.

"You there stop! This is the territory of the Balvan family, you must first state your name and your business with the family if you want to proceed!"

The carriage stopped and Quinn stood up in order to deal with the guard but at that moment a young voice sounded from the roof of the carriage.

"Karl, it's me, let them pass and inform my Master that I'm back!"

Karl was, of course, the guard that stopped them.

Since his constant going out in missions outside the mansion, Noah got to know the names of all the soldiers patrolling the territories near Balvan mansion.

"Oh, it's you! Did you got caught in another mess this time?"

Karl smiled looking at the kid waving at him. With the accident of the rank 3 ironclad spider and the mage in the group of rebels, Noah's reputation was not particularly good.

The soldiers thought that anywhere he went, something unexpected would happen.

"No mess at all, this time I might actually have done a really good service for the inner circle."

Karl shook his head seeing how conscious Noah was of his troublemaking character.

"Then go, I'll tell the vice-captain of your return. You know, he was in a bad mood recently when he saw that you were late."

Noah just smiled while his eyes became darker.

'I'm sorry Master, but I really need to lie to you.'

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"Explain it to me again."

Noah was in a room in the guards building with a big map laid on a table.

William was in front of him with a stern face looking carefully at his disciple.

Noah pointed at the map and spoke in a calm tone.

"I went inside Evergreen forest looking for the Gray Shadows. After searching for two weeks I found no traces of them so I chose to explore deeper in the forest. After some days of travel, I felt signs of life inside a small cave and so I investigated. The bandits' group was inside sorting their items, so I killed them and used their clothes to carry the goods back to the mansion. On the perimeter of the forest, I found Quinn, the merchant, and he willingly offered me a ride back to the mansion inside his carriage. That's all."

Noah would point out on the map his route while he was describing the events of the mission.

William stared at him for some time before speaking again.

"The merchant said that there was an Earth pill with its description among the goods, are you sure that you took everything from the deposit?"

Noah shrugged his shoulders and said with an innocent expression.

"I'm sure that I took everything from the cave, I'm not totally sure that all the items remained in the package though while I was dragging it. What is an Earth pill? Is it good? I can go search for it again if you let me keep it."

Noah had his usual attitude greedy for power which only made William sigh and shook his head.

"Never mind, you can go. I'll give you the reward you asked for once everything is delivered to the inner circle."

Noah lightly bowed and exited the room.

At that moment, a figure appeared behind William.

"Do you trust him?"

William looked again in the direction where Noah went and answered with honesty.

"I think he said the truth, after all, it's quite impossible to hide such a good pill from us. And, captain, you seem to forget that he didn't even try to hide the "Breath" blessing last time even if he risked his life to obtain it."

The captain of the guards just looked at William before turning back.

"You are getting too affectionate to that kid, remember that our duty is toward the inner circle and his position will never be good there."

William's face darkened hearing these words.

He could clearly imagine in his mind the small kid repeating the same techniques every day alone in his room only to get a little bit stronger.

He remembered all his determination during the treatments, even with his body broken his mind was still completely focused, striving to make a small step toward a higher level in the road of cultivation.

For the first time in many years, William felt that life was being unfair and he gave voice to his thoughts.

"Are Heaven and Earth really fair?"

The captain stopped his steps for a second before replying for the last time.

"They are, humans are not."

Then he left, leaving William with a conflicted expression alone in the room.

Meanwhile, Noah went back to his building.

He wanted to meet his mother and reassure her on his well-being, yet, her room was closed with only faint sounds coming from inside it.

It has been a while since Noah became able to completely hear anything happening in the room but he forced himself not to because it would only ruin his mood.

He entered his room and unsheathed his saber, then he practiced in all the forms of his martial art until he calmed himself.

Then he picked the Kesier rune and began a full night training in it.

It was only around midday that he was forced to stop the training because of someone knocking on his door.

Nowadays, even if 8 hours of training consumed a lot of mental energy and made him tired and sleepy, he could still force himself to do basic actions and simple reasoning.

He opened the door only to find Lily standing on the other side with a small box in her hands.

Her figure looked extremely weak and pale, she was visibly tired as her hands were trembling slightly.

A big bruise was on her jaw.

"Your Master sent this for you, he said that you did an amazing service for the family."

She was smiling proudly looking at her only son.

Noah took the box from her hands and gently caressed the spot where the bruise was.

Lily just shook her head.

"It's fine, don't you worry. Your father simply can't handle how amazing you are compared with his other son and daughter."

Then she got close to Noah and took his face between her hands looking at him seriously.

"Promise me that you won't do anything reckless, you have to be safe! Don't worry about me, just focus on your future!"

Noah looked at his mother and nodded showing a slight smile, but in his mind, he could only think about how cold Lily's hands were.

Lily seemed satisfied with his answer and hugged him before going away, while Noah stood still for a while before he closed the door and sat on the ground.

CRACK!

The box in his hand shattered from the pressure applied by Noah's squeeze and two bottles fell on his legs.

'As expected, it's just the Inner-energy potion. It doesn't matter, it should be enough.'

He directly opened a bottle and drank its whole contents.

A wonderful sensation of being strengthened ran through Noah from inside his body but he didn't care, he was already looking at the Kesier rune in front of him continuing his training.

One month and a half passed by, with Noah barely going out of his room during this period.

He would only attend the weekly sparring with his Master and the lunches with his mother, he didn't even go out for missions anymore.

Right now, he was standing in his room, his face was pale and there were large bags under his eyes, yet his eyelids were completely open.

There seemed to be some source of light inside his pupils as his eyes shined in the darkness of the room.

'So, that's what it feels like.'

He was holding the Kesier rune in his right hand in front of his face, yet he seemed to have no difficulties in looking at it.

It was like he was reading any other book!

He smiled and then he put the rune away.

'Next is the sixth treatment!'

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In this month and a half of isolation, Noah's advancements were immense.

The first one was the conclusion of the fifth cycle.

With the help of 12 bottles of Beast's essence and 2 bottles of Inner-energy potion coupled with one month of natural absorption from the acupoints, the fifth cycle got completed in less than three months!

The second one had happened this same day a few minutes before.

He was training in the Kesier rune when its image in his sea of consciousness formed completely.

After that, a humming sound shot out from it and reverberated inside his whole mental sphere making it tremble and enlarge.

Noah only felt a splitting pain in his head and endured until the pain dispersed and the sphere stopped shaking.

The world he saw after the process was over was a different one.

Even though it was deep in the night he could see things almost as clearly as during the day and there seemed to be more details on those.

He took one of his black sabers and carefully inspected it.

The black blade looked perfectly smooth before he advanced but now Noah could see some small dents on it.

He put back the saber and focused on his hearing and perception.

He could sense all the people on the floor!

If he focused enough he could hear the steps of the servants still awake in the distance.

He could feel the air entering his lungs, the blood running in his veins, the "Breath" filling his body.

Even his thoughts seemed to run more smoothly and at a higher speed.

He tried to move the "Breath" according to his martial art with his fingers and he noticed a faint gaseous trace of the color of the rainbow left in the air.

'Is that the Breath of Heaven and Earth? Can I actually see it now?'

He was amazed for a moment before he shook his head.

'No, that was the concentrated "Breath" inside my body. I don't know if I would be able to feel the one of other people so easily too.'

He then laid in his bed to rest since his mind was still a bit confused from the advancement.

'The only problem is how Master will react tomorrow.'

"WHAT?! How is it possible that you completed the fifth cycle?"

William had his mouth wide open and was standing in front of Noah in their usual training room.

"How is it possible? Even with the Inner-energy potion, you should have at least still two months to go! Are you sure that your acupoints stopped working?"

Noah only nodded and then strongly exhaled to calm himself.

He took something from inside his clothes and raised it in front of his Master.

William was still shocked by the earlier news that he simply stared at Noah's hand without recognizing its contents.

Then he finally discerned that something was strange and picked up the sheet in front of him, he unfolded it and looked at the Kesier rune written on it.

He furrowed his brows and looked at Noah's eyes with a confused expression.

"Are you giving up on being a mage?"

Noah could only show a wry smile as he looked around him for a bit, then he got close to his Master and spoke with a soft voice.

"Actually, I would need the next rune because I became a mage last night."

A yell that made the walls tremble sounded in the guards building, the soldiers in the courtyard felt that the noise was similar to the vice-captain's voice.

Inside the room, Noah was sitting on his knees with his hands tightly plugging his ears.

He was waiting for his Master to come out of his amazement afraid that he would release another monstrous yell.

William was breathing roughly with his eyes wide open, but after some seconds, he forced himself to calm down and focused on Noah's forehead, staring at it with a serious gaze.

Noah felt some pressure on his sea of consciousness and so operated his mental energy to defend his sphere.

The fight between internal and external pressure lasted for a minute before William stopped his probing and sat in front of Noah with an incredulous expression.

"You really did it."

Noah just nodded, he really could not give any explanation about it.

"If I was called a rare genius what would you be called then?"

William was deep in thought before he understood the real problem about the whole situation.

"I'll find an excuse to get another copy of the second rune, the inner circle must not know that you became a mage, it's too dangerous."

He still didn't realize that what he was doing was lying to his superiors.

"Then, after you pass the sixth treatment, it's better if you always be outside doing missions. The possibility of the family giving you a magic scroll is low but it's better to accumulate merits before you know your element. You never know, they might actually acknowledge you as a real descendant!"

William was planning the best course of action for his disciple, uncaring that his words were an act of treason themselves.

Noah, looking at the mumbling man in front of him, could not help but feel some warmth inside his chest.

'He is really a good Master, if only his position wasn't so tied to the Balvan family... I should at least make sure not to make trouble for him when I'll run away.'

William stopped his planning when he noticed his disciple staring at him with a simple and honest smile on his face.

"What are you looking for?"

Noah only gave a simple answer.

"Thanks."

William was a bit stunned but then smiled shaking his head.

He placed his hand on Noah's head an ruffled his hair a little before speaking with a joyous tone.

"You worked hard, it's fair to have some rewards, and if Heaven and Earth won't give it to you, I will."

The internal conflict that the vice-captain of the guards had before was solved.

'If humans are not fair, so be it. At least I'm doing my part to make things right.'

Noah could not know of his Master's doubts so he didn't really understand his words.

William rose from the floor humming a happy tune and then sat behind a table in the room to sort through some reports, yet, after some minutes, he looked at the kid still sitting on the ground.

"What is it?"

He was still smiling when he asked that.

"Uhm, Master, are we not gonna do the treatment today?"

William's newfound happiness vanished, replaced by a familiar feeling of irritation.

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The sixth treatment went more smoothly than the others.

The advantage of having reached the level of a mage showed itself during the process as Noah was able to ignore almost completely the inhumane pain that he had to go through.

When his bedridden time was over, his Master abruptly sent him outside the mansion to complete missions.

"Getting the second rune might be difficult but I should be able to do it. For now, just focus on the missions that I give you."

That was what he said to Noah before sending him away.

Noah completed the usual tasks of defending villages from magical beasts' attacks or hunting them down when their packs became too large.

It was not much after he became 13 that a seemingly important mission was delivered to him.

It consisted of escorting a noble caravan from Mossgrove city to Lansay mansion.

Apparently, the Lansay family, a middle-size noble family, committed a crime against the Shosti family and as a punishment, added to a heavy monetary fee, they had to send their main descendant as a political hostage in Mossgrove city.

Now that the punishment ended, the descendant had to go back to his mansion, yet, he chose to set up an escort before starting his trip back.

'I feel that I'm getting myself into some political struggle, why would the main descendant need an escort otherwise?'

Noah was the only one from his mansion that took the mission but a group of soldiers and wanderers had already formed in front of the caravan of the Lansay family when he arrived.

He was wearing his usual tight black outfit with the two sabers sheathed on his back, and his hair was tied together in a simple ponytail.

As he moved toward the group, the soldiers looked in his direction and started to laugh and taunt him.

"What are you doing here little kid, are you lost?"

"Ehy look, those are some nice blades, why don't you lend them to your uncle here? I will give them back after the mission is over!"

"This mission should not be so bad since a kid showed up, hahaha! Look he is coming to us! Are you mad young boy?"

It took Noah one instant to understand what he had to do but he could not help to feel irritated by their words.

'Every fucking time! How is possible that weak people are always so stupid? I'm getting tired of being treated like a kid!'

He neared the soldiers while enduring their taunt and when he was in front of them he just put his hand in front of him in and handshake gesture.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Noah. I hope we can take care of each other."

Noah was smiling innocently and had a pure and clear tone of voice, he was the perfect image of innocence.

His words caused another rain of laughter from the soldiers' group while one of them returned his handshake.

"Don't worry little kid, we will take good care of you."

The soldier could almost not contain his laughter when he spoke those words, yet his face froze when he felt the pressure applied by Noah's grip.

CRACK!

The soldier fell on the ground with his broken hand still in Noah's hand and begged for mercy.

"AHHHHH, please, I was wrong. Please let me go, it hurts!"

The other soldiers were still laughing thinking it was some kind of performance from their friend to mock the kid, however, their expressions paled when they saw the state his hand was when Noah released him.

The hand was completely soft, it seemed that no bones were inside it.

Noah turned his gaze toward the soldiers and pointed at two of them.

"You and you, I believe you mocked me earlier. Come here, I need to congratulate with you."

He still had the same innocent smile as before but it only caused fear to appear in the eyes of the witnesses this time.

The two soldiers looked around them just to notice that the group was stepping away from them.

One of the two tried to apologize.

"Uhm, I am sorry, I didn't know my place."

Noah just shook his head and stated in a cold voice:

"Your hand or your life, your choice."

The other one got angry and unsheathed his sword, yelling loudly.

"If you think that I will be scared of you, you are mistaken. Come, take my life if you have the guts to!"

Noah shrugged his shoulders and moved toward the soldier with a calm expression.

At that moment, a burly man wearing a green robe with an emblem sewed on his left chest area jumped between them and faced Noah.

"Stop making all this noise before we start the selection for the escort or you will have to face me!"

The soldier with the sword in his hand relaxed seeing the man from the Lansay family and lowered his sword but then he felt his vision spinning and then descending into darkness.

These were the last things he saw.

Noah was beside his headless corpse with his hand raised in the direction of the remaining soldier.

The man from the Lansay family felt cold sweat running down his spine when Noah completely disappeared from his field of view only to reappear behind him.

The remaining soldier was scared stiff but after some seconds, he managed to place his hand inside Noah's one.

CRACK!

He fell on the ground with the bones in his left hand broken but uttered no sound, he was too scared of enraging the monstrous kid in front of him.

All the presents gulped and swore to themselves to never look Noah in the eyes in the days to come.

Noah went in front of the burly man still petrified on the spot and asked smiling:

"I'm sorry, were you saying?"

Before the man could answer though, a voice sounded from the caravan and another man donned in the robes of the Lansay family appeared.

"You must be the envoy from the Balvan family, William could have not chosen a better disciple. I'm Kevin Lam, head of the guards of the Lansay family, I hope you can accept my excuses for the bad behavior of my man."

Kevin was the most brawny man Noah had ever seen, he was more than two meters tall and his arms were almost as large as a man's waist.

Noah felt a faint sense of danger coming from him so he chose to stop to his overbearing attitude.

He lightly bowed and said in a cool voice.

"If it is Mister Lam's request, of course I will accept them."

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Noah was sitting inside one of the carriages of the caravan.

Kevin had invited him inside finding unnecessary his participation in the selection for the escort group.

"You know, me and your master were considered the best warriors of our generation. We would usually meet during our training days doing missions since the relationship between my Lansay family and your Balvan family has always been friendly."

Kevin was speaking while being seated in front of Noah.

"But, well, he became the vice-captain of Balvan's outer ring while I became the head of the guards of my family, so we didn't have a chance to meet in a long time."

He was pouring what seemed wine in two cups from a clay jug in his hand, then he offered one of the cups to Noah.

"When I heard that his disciple was going to assist for this mission I was instantly curious. I must say that you live up to your master's reputation."

He raised his cup in a toasting gesture and Noah welcomed it by doing the same with his cup, yet he was using his mental energy to scan the liquid inside it.

'There seems to be no problem with the wine, I think he is telling the truth, his relationship with Master must be really good.'

Noah didn't hesitate anymore and took a sip from the cup.

A familiar burning sensation ran through his throat but was soon suppressed by the healing ability of his body.

'Oh right, with a rank 2 body in the higher tier I bet it will be pretty hard to get drunk.'

He had entered the sixth cycle so the effects of the Forging of the Seven Hells were becoming more prominent as he neared the completion of the process.

His healing abilities had improved, the same went for his "Breath" perception and his martial art execution.

'Well, I could not feel the increase in perception since it was outclassed by my advancement to rank 1 mage but my martial art has reached a whole new level, it should have fully broken through the level of a rank 3 magical beast.'

His most powerful attacks were already on that level after he obtained a rank 2 body but with the sixth cycle already nearing the rank 3 limit, his whole martial art had reached that level.

'My limit should be around thirty attacks at full power and if I factor the absorption of the acupoints I should be able to double that number. I should be fine unless I find myself in a really long fight.'

The disadvantage of not having a dantian was greatly reduced but still existed which made Noah still concerned about a fight with a real cultivator.

"Do you like the wine?"

Kevin's voice made him realize that he had lost himself in thoughts and he hurriedly made an explanation.

"I'm sorry, I had something in my mind."

Kevin looked confused and said:

"You are too polite, no one has ever apologized for a few seconds of silence."

Noah was surprised.

'Uh? Few seconds? Has my thinking speed become that high?'

He hastily raised his cup again to hide his confused expression and took another sip.

Then he put down the cup and stared at Kevin with a stern expression, a bit of coldness was released by his eyes.

"Shall we start with the real talk?"

Kevin seemed to approve as he emptied his cup and answered with a calm voice.

"What do you want to know?"

Noah's question arrived instantly.

"Why the escort?"

The question hit some crucial point as Kevin sighed and a sad expression appeared on his face.

"As you know, the young master in the caravan is the main descendant of the Lansay family. Logically speaking he should succeed his father as the patriarch of the family but..."

He filled another cup of wine before resuming his speech.

"But he is too young. His father is gravely ill and will not live for long so his uncle might use this trip as a chance to kill the heir and take control of the family."

Noah understood something but there were still some doubts in his mind.

"How is it possible that a patriarch of a medium-size noble family could have let the situation escalate to this?"

Kevin drank again and answered.

"It was the patriarch's fault if the Lansay family got punished so his brother, Tobias Lansay, used these events to gather consensus with the other soldiers in the inner circle. The only corp that remained loyal to Benedict Lansay, the patriarch, is the one with me in this mission."

The situation was far worse than what Noah imagined.

"And what bringing back the heir can even do? They can just kill him once he is in the mansion."

Kevin put down the cup and got near to Noah.

His voice became extremely low.

"This is a secret of the inner circle so if I ever find out that you disclosed it to anyone I will make killing you my lifelong mission, do you understand me?"

A dense killing intent was released by Kevin.

The soldiers and wanderers that were going through the selection outside the carriage trembled as the atmosphere became incredibly stiff.

Noah simply kept looking at the big man in front of him but a trace of admiration was formed his mind.

'He is a veteran of the battlefield, I can't even imagine the number of lives he has taken.'

The stalemate lasted for a whole minute before Noah made up his mind and nodded.

Kevin stared at him for a few more seconds before he revealed the information.

"Lansay treasury is protected by a special formation. I don't know much about formations but I know the rules behind this one. Only the current patriarch or his descendants can control it and can determine the fate of every item inside the treasury. Benedict Lansay already gave the control of the formation to his son but he must first get there to accept it. If he was to die before that, the control of the formation would directly go to the next in line of succession, which is to say Tobias Lansay."

'There is such a thing in this world, the branches of cultivation are really various.'

He remembered how when he was still a child, the mansion's wall wounded a dragon.

'That should be a formation too, they seem some really powerful things. I should ask Master about the various applications that cultivation has once I go back.'

"Are you saying that the formation will know if the heir dies?"

Noah's question was answered by a slight nod from Kevin.

He fell deep in thought before asking with an expressionless face:

"What do I gain from helping you?"

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"Magic scrolls and various techniques are off-limit. As for resources, I believe we can work out a deal."

Kevin's answer was immediate, he knew too well the difficulties of getting stronger without a noble status.

Noah had suspected such restrictions so he demanded what he needed more at the moment.

"I need potions or pills for the nourishment of the body, the level must be the same as the Inner-energy pill."

Kevin furrowed his brows.

He was surprised that such a young man knew of the existence of the Inner-energy pill but he was principally impressed by the fact that Noah directly requested something of that value.

"I don't have the authority to promise such a good reward."

Noah shrugged his shoulders at the answer.

"Then bring me to someone who has it."

Another stalemate followed by, with a giant man and a kid staring at each other in silence inside the carriage.

At some point, Kevin nodded.

"Follow me, and please remember to be respectful."

Kevin jumped off the carriage with Noah following close behind him and went for the second-last carriage of the caravan.

He knocked at the door and bowed speaking in a firm voice.

"Young Master, it's me."

A young voice came from inside the carriage.

"Come in."

The door opened and Kevin went through it indicating to Noah to follow.

A young man donned in green was sitting inside the carriage with a chalice in his right hand.

He had curly blond hair and some traces of beard, he was around 14-15 years old and had a pale complexion.

A bit of arrogance was exuded from his expression.

Noah looked attentively at the heir of the Lansay family and could not help but feel disappointed.

'He is so weak, what's the point of being a noble if you don't even make use of your status to increase your strength. No wonder his uncle is so close to deposing him.'

There was the faint presence of "Breath" around him which meant that he had at least trained in some body-nourishment technique but, apart from that, he had only his status to protect him.

Noah was still staring at the young man when he felt and angry gaze looking at him.

He turned in its direction and saw Kevin staring at him as he was waiting for something.

'Oh right, a weak noble is still a noble.'

Noah lightly bowed.

"Greetings, heir of the Lansay family."

The nobleman seemed to notice Noah's presence only after he spoke and looked with an inquisitory gaze toward Kevin.

"He is Noah, the disciple of a good friend of mine. He will be a good asset in this mission."

Kevin spoke and then he turned to Noah.

"He is Basil Lansay, son of Benedict Lansay, the true heir to the title of patriarch."

Basil put the chalice down and asked with an annoyed tone.

"Why did you brought him here, what's the matter?"

Kevin bowed.

"He is asking for a reward that I don't have the authority to promise."

Basil snorted.

"Hmph, once I get access to the treasury I can make sure that you won't have to work anymore in your life. There is no need to come here in person."

Kevin continued.

"He is asking for body-nourishment pills, and of high level too."

Basil's eyes opened wide.

"How can someone younger than me be worthy of such resources, just kick him out and teach him a lesson."

Noah got immediately irritated and a cold pressure began to be exuded from him.

The pressure emitted from a mage was unsustainable by a weak person like Basil and he started to gasp for breath.

At that moment though, Kevin's killing intent surged again forcing Noah to retract the pressure.

Basil breathed roughly and got angry beyond reason.

"How dares a lowly one like you hurt me! Kevin, don't bother with what I said earlier, just kill him and show his corpse to those animals out there. Maybe they will understand the difference in status this way!"

However, Noah was already going out of the carriage.

'Nevermind, it's useless to take on such a risky mission just for reputation and merits. I'll go back to the mansion and make up an excuse.'

Before he jumped off though, Basil's voice sounded again.

"Wait!"

Noah turned to look at Basil.

"It seems that I misjudged you. I indeed need strong people for this mission since we will have to go against the guards of my uncle. We can work out a deal, but first, you have to apologize for your behavior from earlier."

'So he does have some intelligence between all the noble crap.'

He looked in Kevin's direction and saw him smiling proudly while nodding at him, he presumably managed to persuade the young noble with his words.

"No."

Noah's answer was firm.

Kevin's smile froze and even the young heir was at loss for words, he only managed to stammer a weak question.

"W-Why?"

"Because you are weak, noble or not you don't deserve my apologies."

Basil got angry again and was about to yell when Kevin placed his hand on the nobleman's shoulder.

"Young master, I know that he is rude but we really need all the help that we can find. Only once you get your position as a patriarch you can act as overbearing as you want."

Noah just shook his head hearing these words.

'Don't tell me that even the descendants of the Balvan family are like this. Maybe my theory on the idiocy of weak people is right.'

The discussion between Kevin and Basil went on for a while, with Noah's irritation increasing for every second that he was forced to hear more of it.

In the end, Basil agreed to Noah's request and Kevin hurriedly carried him away before he said something that could ruin again his young master's mood.

When they were back in the previous carriage Noah could not help but mock Kevin.

"A mighty cultivator like you being forced to be the nanny of a spoiled kid, you sure have it rough."

A slight smirk was on his face as he looked at the big man massaging his temples to calm himself.

"It's not entirely the young master's fault. He grew up with the descendants of the Shosti family bulling him all the time and when his moment to do the bullying finally came he met with a man like you. Don't worry, when we reach the mansion I'll personally make sure that you get what he promised."

Noah nodded, he believed in Kevin words.

Meanwhile, the trial for the escort mission outside the caravan was over.

They were ready to set off.

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The caravan began to move in the direction of Lansay mansion.

Their speed was slow due to the high number of people moving by foot around the carriages.

The caravan had four carriages and the men that had passed the elimination process of the selection amounted to forty, so it was impossible for all of them to find a sitting spot.

Coupled with the ten soldiers belonging to the Lansay family, their appearance resembled a small troop going to war.

With their speed, it would take them about a month to reach their destination.

Noah was sitting on top of the roof of the second carriage, but whenever he looked at the group below him he would just shake his head.

'Do they even realize in what mess they got themselves into? We will have to fight against the guards of the inner circle of a noble family. The Lansay family might have declined but their sheer number of cultivators still surpasses ours. They will be just used as cannon fodder.'

Before he accepted, Noah stormed Kevin with questions about the plan to be sure that it was actually feasible.

When he heard about the quantity of the cultivators under Tobias Lansay, he was about to give up on the mission uncaring of the promised rewards.

'Twenty-five cultivators against ten of them and a bunch of meat shields, it would be impossible to do if not for the fact that we only have to get Basil inside the mansion for the mission to succeed.'

If the two groups were to fight, the only outcome would be a total defeat.

However, Kevin revealed to him that once Basil entered the gates of the mansion he could already take control of the formation.

With the resources accumulated by the Lansay family for years at stake, Tobias would either have to abandon his plan to become the patriarch and run away or forsake his status as a noble.

After all, nobility was about wealth and techniques.

'If we use the non-cultivators as a shield and run straight to the middle of their defense, we might actually do it.'

That's why Noah decided to stay, he was sure that with Kevin's frame, breaking through a line of defense was a feasible task.

The first week of travel passed with nothing out of the ordinary happening, the caravan had moved smoothly, but then trouble appeared.

Noah was the first to sense an unusual amount of people on their road and when the caravan stopped the blockage was clearly visible.

Fifty or so men were blocking their path, yet there were no cultivators among them.

They were dressed in commoner's clothes or rusty armors but their weapons seemed newly made and of good workmanship.

Noah jumped off the roof of the carriage and walked in the direction of Kevin that was already staring at the group with a bit of anger in his eyes.

When he sensed Noah next to him, he spoke.

"They must have been hired by the young master's uncle from nearby villages. He wants to probe us.

If I send my men to fight them we will reveal most of our abilities, but if I send the non-cultivators their numbers will decrease endangering the plan. I never thought that Tobias would be so ruthless to actually send people to die just to investigate us."

Noah was looking at the troop of commoners but internally he was sneering.

'Aren't you doing the same? It's not like most of your newly recruited men will survive anyway.'

He sighed a little and then replied.

"Then we just have to be more ruthless."

Noah unsheathed his sabers and walked toward the enemy troop.

"If I take care of them we will reveal almost no information and we will keep uninjured your precious meat shields."

Kevin felt a bit of shame from Noah's comment but did not reply, he just watched the kid getting near the group of commoners.

When Noah was at twenty meters from them he stopped and then spoke loudly.

"Anyone that still wants to live will better step away from this path. After I count to three, all those still in front of me will die."

A kid was threatening fifty or so grown-up men.

However, before they had any chance to laugh, a chill ran through them as they saw the kid's eyes emitting a suffocating coldness.

"One!"

All these commoners were recruited from villages that suffered from the Lansay family's punishment, they were poor beyond reason.

"Two!"

Since the Lansay family had to pay a huge fee to the Shosti family, they heavily raised the taxes on the people in their domain, bringing them on the verge of starvation.

"Three!"

Because of that, not one of the villagers stepped back in front of the dreadful kid, they had already taken part of the payment from Tobias and if they managed to survive, that sum would duplicate.

What followed was a massacre.

From the point of view of the weak soldiers around the caravan, Noah was just walking between the enemy lines.

However, anyone he passed near to would just fall on the ground with their throats sliced or their chests pierced.

Blood was flowing on the ground filling it with red puddles.

No one noticed that some of the best weapons of the villagers disappeared before touching the ground and were sucked in a spot on Noah's waist.

When Noah came back to the caravan, his leather shoes were drenched in blood and were leaving vivid red marks on the ground where he walked.

An indifferent expression was on his face, like he had just come back from a simple walk.

'The stronger I become, the less I consider weak people as humans. I guess that the emotional detachment from normal humans is just a natural cause of my power rising.'

The soldiers moved away from his path and left a road for him to go back on the roof of the carriage.

Noah casually jumped on it and threw away the dirty shoes, leaving his bare feet in the air hanging from the roof.

BLEGHH

Basil was outside his carriage puking on the ground.

He had secretly watched Noah's battle and could not hold back the retches he was feeling.

Kevin hurriedly went next to him and brought him back to the carriage under the disappointed gaze of his soldiers.

They were comparing internally this young noble with the ruthless kid on top of a carriage and could not help to shake their heads concerned about the future of the Lansay family.

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In a basement inside Lansay mansion, a man in his fifties with curly blonde hair was watching a map with some pawns on it.

At some point, a soldier appeared behind him and kneeled on the floor.

"Lord Tobias, the spies in Basil's escort have sent the report. None of Kevin's men joined the battle, only a kid went to fight and killed all of the peasants. They now have resumed their trip toward our direction."

Tobias nodded not even turning back to look at the soldier and moved one of the pawns on the map.

"Did you find the carriage where Basil is staying?"

"Yes, the spies reported that he went out of his carriage to relieve himself from the harshness of the battle."

Tobias shook his head.

"That kid is too weak, the patriarch's bloodline has gotten too soft, no wonder we are in this situation."

He sighed and then pointed on the map.

"Send the mages to intercept them on Twilboia Cliff, put an end to my nephew's dream."

Meanwhile, on the caravan, Noah was lying on the roof of a carriage concentrating his mental energy to scan the surroundings.

They were nearing a place called Twilboia Cliff which in Kevin's opinion was the perfect place for an ambush, so he was wary of anything out of the ordinary that entered his perception.

Lansay mansion was in the opposite direction of Balvan mansion from the point of view of Mossgrove city, so Noah didn't know much about the environment of this region.

At some point, he felt someone getting close to his side.

He turned to look in that direction and saw Basil clumsily trying to climb to the top of the carriage where he was.

Noah waited patiently for the nobleman to succeed in his climbing and smiled a little when he saw him sitting next to him.

"Can I help you with something, mister heir?"

Basil nodded and answered.

"I want you to reply to some of my questions."

Noah became slightly interested.

"Go ahead, I don't have much to do anyway."

He had yet to receive the second Kesier rune so his training had momentarily halted.

"How did you kill those men?"

Noah was momentarily confused and pointed at the sabers on his back with a questioning look.

"No, I mean, how could you do that so naturally?"

Basil corrected himself and Noah finally understood the meaning of his words.

"Mh, I believe you won't feel bad about killing animals to feed yourself. It's the same with humans on my road toward power: they stood in my way so I killed them."

Basil was bewildered seeing a man younger than him speaking in such ways about human life.

"B-But you won't die if you don't have power, it's not the same! They were just hungry commoners fighting for food!"

Noah looked at him with scorn.

"Weren't you the one that wanted to show my corpse to the animals defending you?"

Basil became silent to Noah's reprimand and a bit of shame appeared on his face.

"I-I was just imitating the way the people in the Shosti family acted. I never saw a corpse before your fight."

Noah shook his head.

'He is still a kid after all, I'm the strange one since my appearance doesn't reflect my real age.'

He thought for a bit and then he answered with sincerity.

"If a dragon was to pass by right now and attacked us we would all be dead. Good, evil, and all the other human constructs would be reduced to ashes by a random event. You say you won't die if you don't have power but that is false: those villagers were weak so they got exploited until they chose to go against a group of cultivators, their end was decided the moment they accepted your uncle's deal; you are weak so your family is hunting you down due to the status you were born with and all you can do is hide in a carriage hoping that Kevin will be strong enough to protect you."

Basil lowered his head hearing these words but Noah's speech wasn't over yet.

"If you care about something, you should be strong enough to defend it. If you want something, you should be strong enough to aim for it. If you are weak, you should aim to become stronger. If you want to become stronger, you must have the resolution to climb mountains of corpses. You should have understood by now that the cultivation world is not a nice one."

Basil nodded and expressed the last question he had in his mind.

"Killing fifty innocent men to protect one only for some small increase in power, aren't you afraid that the world will consider you a demon?"

This question made Noah fell in deep thought.

He ran through all the experiences he had in this life.

The battles with the magical beasts, the sparring with his Master, his mother's smile, the various missions until only one image remained in his mind.

There was an elderly man floating in the air.

He had one hand raised to block a lance of flames launched by a dragon.

In the eyes of a baby, he looked like a god free from any restriction, untouchable by normal humans.

'I wonder how much will it take for me to reach that level.'

Noah had unconsciously raised his gaze to the sky, staring at a fixed point with vacant eyes.

A pure and boundless yearning for power made itself clear inside his mind and then, he answered.

"So what?"

Basil was about to ask more before a chilling sensation enveloped him.

Noah was still looking at the sky but his eyes were dark and cold, like a beast looking at its prey.

Seeing no changes in his attitude, Basil gave up on asking more questions and climbed down the carriage to go back to his original lodging.

Noah stared at the sky for a long time before he moved his gaze toward a small mountain next to a cliff in the distance.

'If the world will call me a demon, so be it. If it will give me the power to save my mother and to pursue the road of cultivation without restrictions, I will gladly forsake my humanity.'

The caravan continued on its road to Twilboia Cliff unaware of the spies in its group or of the battle that was waiting there for it.

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Twilboia Cliff was a deep gorge next to a small mountain called Twilboia Mountain.

A narrow passage divided the two and, since the caravan could not climb the mountain, it was its only possible road.

When the caravan neared the passage, a faint pressure dawned on the escort group.

They were aware that if Tobias had set up an ambush here, the battle would not be an easy one.

They had the disadvantage of the terrain while the enemy could attack from the mountain and retreat at will.

Kevin was staring at the gorge with some solemnity and Noah could not help but go next to him to ask more questions when he saw that expression.

"What's down there?"

Noah asked following Kevin's gaze.

"It's not sure. We know that the concentration of "Breath" is high at the bottom but the place is magical beasts' territory. The last time someone tried to clean the gorge and put their mansion there the cultivation world lost a medium-size family."

Noah gulped a bit, the cliff had become incredibly scary in his eyes.

"What's the plan for the ambush?"

They were against a man aiming for the title of patriarch of a medium-size noble family, if the gorge was the best place for him to attack, Noah was sure that an attack would be there.

"We can't retreat and we can't allow them to push us in the gorge. I'll charge ahead as soon as I see an enemy while you with some of my men will be in charge of defending the young master's carriage. The others are free to use their lives to give me the time to kill everyone."

A thick battle intent exuded from Kevin which made Noah tremble a bit.

'I really did the best choice by apologizing back then.'

His confidence in holding his own against Kevin was reduced by a large amount.

'He was the head of the guards after all.'

The caravan entered the passage and the escort group set up a battle formation around it.

Noah was on the roof of Basil's carriage with his eyes closed, sharpening his senses to sense the enemy approach.

The passage was not long, only about a day of travel with their speed, yet every minuted passed in there seemed to last an eternity.

The concentration of "Breath" had already increased when they entered the passage and seemed to reach its peak when they were in the middle of it.

At that moment though, something happened.

A bullet made of water hit one of the cultivators near Noah and pierced his skull, the man fell lifeless on the ground.

No one on the caravan had seen the attack coming and a suffocating silence followed the death of the soldier.

"MAGE!"

Noah broke the silence with his warning as he hastily unsheathed his sabers staring in the direction of the mountain.

He didn't feel the enemy attack coming which meant that the assailant had bigger achievements in mental energy than him!

The escort group was about to fell into chaos when Kevin's yell calmed them down.

"Get in position! Push toward the mountain! Follow me!"

He took the vanguard position and charged toward the mountain wielding a huge hammer with both his hands.

Another water bullet was shot in his direction but Kevin simply swung his hammer and shattered it, and then he jumped toward the area where it came from.

Two more bullets were fired only to get blocked by the hammer, then Kevin swung it downward hitting the ground in front of him.

BOOM!

An explosion rang out and a five meters deep hole was created on the side of the mountain.

"Irvin come out and fight me face to face!"

Kevin yelled seemingly to the air but then a figure appeared between the smoke raised by his blow.

"You never change Kevin, always charging ahead. I'm afraid that this time it won't work though."

A short man donned in green robes came out of the smoke and faced Kevin.

Irvin raised his hand and two more water bullets shot out from it.

Kevin just deflected them and charged in his direction with an oppressing killing intent.

Seeing the huge man rushing at him, the mage simply stood in his place releasing a torrent of bullets.

Most of the shots were deflected by the hammer but some of them hit Kevin's skin and left some small wounds on it.

When Kevin was about to reach the mage, three strings of water sprouted from the ground and tied themselves around Kevin blocking his movements.

Irvin nodded at the sight of the trapped man and spoke with pride.

"As expected from a rank 4 body, my water bullets can't hurt you consistently. If you were the one to kill the situation would have been really troublesome, yet your life is of no importance to Lord Tobias."

As soon as he said these words, a group of soldiers wearing green armors shot out from another point of the mountain aiming for the group defending the caravan.

Irvin had used himself as a decoy to draw out the stronger person of the escort, weakening deeply the defenses of the caravan.

The enemy soldiers amounted to fifteen people and directly stormed through the line of defense made by the normal soldiers, none of them could block any of the enemies.

The normal soldiers that were on their path were instantly killed or gravely wounded by just one swing of their weapons.

'They are all cultivators!'

Noah from his position on the carriage could clearly see that his moment was imminent and sharpened his mind like never before, a tinge of battle intent could be discerned in his cold eyes.

'Finally a real battle against a cultivator. I really want to see how far I am from their level.'

Tobias Lansay's soldiers broke through the first line of defense and engaged a battle with Kevin's soldiers.

Noah scanned the enemies and picked a man with a heavy ax as a target.

He sent a wind slash at him following it to deliver a melee attack when the soldier tried to block it.

The soldier though, seeing the wind slash, swung his ax to meet the slash.

The slash was shattered by the sheer strength of the blow and Noah was forced to block the ax that maintained its trajectory.

CLINK!

Two sabers blocked the heavy blow and Noah was sent flying for some meters before safely landing on the ground.

The soldier turned in his direction and was a bit surprised to see that the kid easily blocked his swing, but most importantly, that he was smiling looking at him.

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Noah had never fought for real against a cultivator.

His fights with William were only spars and against Orson's group, he was just playing a supporting role.

At that moment though, he was facing a real cultivator alone and that made him feel extremely excited.

'Finally, someone that doesn't die in one hit!'

The soldier from the Lansay family was initially stunned by Noah's smile but then focused again on the battle and charged ahead with his ax raised.

Noah didn't notice his own smile, all his attention was one the ax coming to him.

When the ax was a few centimeters from his head, Noah abruptly dodged on his left rotating his sabers in the process aiming for the soldier's head.

The soldier hid behind the metal handle and blocked the swing, yet a cut appeared on his cheek: the handle could not block the blow completely!

He retreated by some steps and resumed his posture, wary of the smiling kid slowly moving toward him.

They jumped at each other at the same time and exchanged a few blows before separating again.

This time a couple of light wounds appeared on the soldier's right leg.

Noah didn't choose his target randomly but picked the one who would suffer more from his fast attacks coming from two different directions.

The big ax the cultivator was wielding wasn't suited to block Noah's two sabers and, with his ability in deflecting and a rank 2 body nearing the peak of the rank, it was almost impossible to break his defense with only sheer strength.

Noah understood that he could not directly kill the soldier until he made a mistake and the soldier had his same thoughts so they charged at each other again waiting for one of them to commit an error.

Wounds kept on accumulating on the soldier's body as Noah pressed on attacking him everytime he tried to separate from the kid to resume a defensive posture.

After more than ten exchanges, the soldier's armor was almost entirely tarnished by its owner's blood.

However, Noah wasn't in a better situation.

Even though he had no wounds on him, the "Breath" in his body had halved and he didn't manage to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy.

The battle had become an endurance competition.

Noah attacked again slashing with both his weapons and the soldier raised his ax to block them.

CLINK!

Another clash occurred but the soldier became confused when he heard that only one of the sabers had hit his handle.

The other saber had momentarily vanished only to reappear in his face pointing at his left eye.

He hastily ducked but, in that moment of surprise, Noah had already slashed with his other blade on his chest area.

The invisible blade was dodged but the other one cut vertically his abdomen leaving a deep wound on it.

Noah didn't waste any time and quickly retreated on the roof of the carriage to replenish the expended "Breath", as for the soldier, he only had the time to look at his wound before his insides came out from it and he fell dead on the ground.

'As expected, the Snake-wrist form is too weak to consistently hit cultivators, at least it gave me the chance to end the battle sooner.'

What he had used was the first technique he had learnt five years ago by scamming guards.

He had never used it because the techniques he received after it were much stronger than an incomplete form of a rank 2 martial art, yet that didn't mean that he had forgotten it.

Seeing that the battle could have lasted for many other clashes, Noah chose to try a feint with the Snake-wrist technique and, even if it didn't fool the soldier, it was enough to create a decisive flaw in his defense.

'At least now I know where I stand compared with a cultivator. My techniques and their executions are above their average, but the flaws of not having a dantian are pretty severe.'

He understood that he could not fight prolonged battles on this level so he chose to rest and analyze the situation to find where his help would create the biggest results.

Meanwhile, on the mountain path.

Kevin was still immobilized by the water magic of the mage but was moderately safe since Irvin was assaulted by the horde of non-cultivators that came with him.

Nevertheless, the situation could not last for long since Irvin took out a whip from his back and randomly slaughtered the normal soldier that charged at him.

Kevin felt restless watching the fight in front of him and the cultivators attacking the caravan so he chose to use his hidden ace.

His skin became of a yellowish-brown color and his muscles swelled, his height too seemed to increase.

A roar came out of his mouth as he used all of his strength to break free from the water bindings.

The ground under his feet cracked and the strings holding his body still stretched until they couldn't handle Kevin's monstrous strength anymore and shattered.

Kevin was finally free!

When he was out of the strings his body continued to grow until he was three meters tall!

The soldiers around him froze when they saw the form he had assumed and even Irvin's expression became serious looking at the brown giant.

"You've mastered the ability of your body technique in the end."

Kevin didn't reply to Irvin's words and slowly walked in his direction wielding the big hammer in one hand.

The mage shot two water bullets but when they hit the brown skin, they only left some small white marks on it.

Seeing that his magic had no effect on him, Irvin summoned again the three water strings which fused together to become an azure half-transparent whip that he wielded in his left hand.

Together with the other whip in his right hand, he charged straight at Kevin.

Irvin launched an attack with the normal whip but Kevin easily raised his arm to block it.

The whip though, wrapped on his arm and the mage was about to launch an attack with the other one when Kevin grabbed it and forcefully pulled!

Irvin was immediately sent flying in Kevin's direction and was about to clash with the hammer when the water whip transformed in a shield and blocked the incoming blow.

The water shield managed to stay intact against the tremendous strike but Irvin still suffered from the impact and was flung away at over ten meters of distance!

No one noticed that a small crack had appeared on Kevin's shoulder.

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Irvin got up from the ground.

His complexion was pale and a bit of blood was coming out of his mouth, the previous blow had injured him internally.

Kevin didn't waste any time as he charged in his direction, yet his speed was lower than before, apparently, the technique had slowed his movements in exchange for great strength and defense.

Irvin dodged the charge and swung relentlessly the water whip in his hands.

The whip clashed multiple times with Kevin's skin leaving deep marks and some cracks on it.

Kevin didn't seem to care and continued to chase the retreating mage.

Irvin's hit and run tactic seemed to work since cracks kept on accumulating on Kevin's body but then, Kevin threw his hammer toward the mage.

The heavy hammer flew at an insane speed and almost hit Irvin that dodged at the last moment.

However, when the hammer met with the ground, a big tremor was created unbalancing Irvin's posture and halting his escape.

Kevin made use of this chance to get close to Irvin and deliver a massive strike but the mage's whip transformed again in a shield that blocked the hit.

Irvin was once again flung away.

This time it took him longer to get up, the second wave of internal injuries had weakened him thoroughly.

When he managed to stand up he found himself looking at Kevin's giant figure in front of him that had already raised his hand to strike.

"You lost Irvin."

His fist descended and was about to hit the mage when a thunderbolt hit Kevin straight at the center of his chest.

Kevin was sent flying and when he hit the ground his body turned back to its original appearance, his technique had expired!

A black web of burned flash that was releasing smoke constituted the wound on his chest.

Kevin coughed and tried to stand up but there seemed to be no more strength left in his body as he pointed with his arms on the ground just to fall again on it.

Irvin relaxed and sat casually, then he looked behind him and angrily yelled.

"You took your fucking time! I was almost gone for good!"

A tall man dressed in green large robes appeared from a hole in the mountain.

His skin was pale and some drops of sweat were on his forehead but he was smiling happily in spite of everything.

"I'm sorry Lord Irvin, as you know it still takes me a lot of time to cast this spell."

The tall man went close to Irvin and handed him a bottle with a white liquid.

Irvin took it and directly drank it, a bit of color returned to his pale cheeks.

"Tsk, to think that the family values you so much because your attribute is of the thunder element. It's a pity they only gave you that slow spell."

Irvin shook his head but his attention was on Kevin still struggling to get up.

"Julian, don't bother about him, the technique he used earlier left him exhausted so he is not a threat anymore."

He closed his eyes for a brief moment and then spoke again.

"My injuries are too serious, I can't help in this fight anymore. The next phase of the mission is up to you."

Julian bowed and closed his eyes to focus.

Meanwhile, on the caravan.

The group of cultivators was creating chaos inside the escort's lines of defense.

Noah was moving between the top of the carriage and the fight below him trying to tilt the scales of the battle but he was having poor results.

The soldiers became wary of him when he killed one of them and chose to slow their offensive to limit their losses.

They had a higher number of cultivators after all, so a prolonged fight would benefit them more.

Noah could not find any valid opportunity to increase their chance to win.

Then Kevin transformed and fought on even ground with the water mage lifting the morale of his soldiers that fought with more fervor.

However, Noah's mood became gloomy.

'We might win this battle but we will never reach the mansion. If these are the troops that they can send out in mission how many more there will be defending the treasury?'

In his mind, he understood that they had miscalculated Tobias Lansay's strength.

'I was too rash, I should have never accepted this mission. My power is only equal to that of these cultivators and they are being used as pawns! Now I'm stuck here to hope that Kevin will win his fight and help us'

A bit of frustration was building inside Noah due to the situation he was in and he could not help but blame himself for his recklessness.

'No point in holding back then.'

From his position on the top of the carriage, Noah slashed the air in the direction of the enemy soldiers.

Fourteen wind slashes shot out in the direction of the cultivators, one for each of them.

The cultivators were forced to block or dodge the strikes and could not focus momentarily on the men around them.

Some of Kevin's soldiers managed to take advantage of this situation and wounded the enemies' cultivators making them retreat.

One of them though surpassed Kevin's men and went straight for Basil's carriage.

Noah jumped down the carriage and clashed with the man's sword blocking his advance.

More than ten collisions rang out in the battle as Noah and the soldier didn't hold anything back in their attacks.

Noah's acupoints were refilling his body of "Breath" at a way higher speed than the normal one since in Twilboia Cliff the "Breath" concentration was greater, so he could keep fighting at full force even after his previous display of power.

The swordman and the kid proceeded on fighting making metallic sounds reverberate in the battlefield.

Then a rumble burst out from the sky and a thunderbolt fell on the carriage where Basil was staying.

The thunder was massive and directly blasted the carriage apart.

A shockwave then spread from the area of impact of the spell sending everything from its center away.

Noah was too close to the carriage and was overwhelmed by the shockwave that launched him past the narrow road and over the cliff.

Noah could not stop himself from falling in the gorge.

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Noah was falling at high speed toward the foggy bottom of the gorge.

The pressure on his face was becoming impossible to withstand even with a rank 2 body, it was useless to say what would happen if he crashed on the ground with this speed.

Noah cursed in his mind and tried to thrust his sabers on the rocky wall of the canyon but the rocks were incredibly hard and only the tip of his blades managed to pierce their surface.

Two straight trails were left on the wall as Noah kept on falling and held on his weapons.

His speed was slowly lowering but then the rocks along the wall became even harder and his sabers came out from the groove they created.

Noah falling speed increased again and no matter how many times he tried, his sabers couldn't pierce the rocks anymore.

He looked below him and saw a small cavity a few hundred meters downward on his left side.

He steeled his determination and sheathed his sabers, then he pressed his hands and feet on the wall.

The rocks coupled with his speed rapidly minced his skin but Noah held on waiting for the best moment to act.

When the cavity was at the right distance he pushed against the wall toward his left side.

Noah fell diagonally and crouched mid-air to reduce his surface, putting his head between his legs to protect it.

His body smashed into the inner wall of the cavity and cracking sounds came from it but when he touched the ground he slipped again toward the gorge.

Both his legs and his left arm were unresponsive so he shot his right hand toward the edge of the cavity.

Noah felt an extreme pressure on his right shoulder but he never allowed his hand to lose its grip, he endured the pain he was feeling until the pressure disappeared.

He opened his eyes and found himself hanging on the edge of the hole with his other limbs swinging powerlessly toward the bottom of the gorge.

Noah pulled with his right arm and lifted himself in the hole, then he forcefully bit the ground and moved his arm deeper in the cavity dragging his body in the process.

His teeth did not pierce the rocks but could last as a handhold for the time needed to his hand to find a handle deeper in the hole.

After repeating this process a few times, Noah's body was fully lying on the floor of the cavity.

'I'm alive.'

That was his first thought when he managed to stop his fall.

He used his remaining strength to check a place on his waist under his clothes and smiled a little when he took out a silver ring from it.

He relaxed at the sight of the ring and collapsed after one last thought.

'I can survive.'

Noah was woken up the next day by a wave of pain coming from his body.

He looked around him and remembered the events of the battle.

'I don't know if it would have been worse to stay there. Basil is probably dead so my fate should have been the same if I remained in the battle.'

He slowly moved his hand toward the silver ring on his side and wore it on his index, a cold sensation hit the scraped skin on his palm.

A piece of dried meat appeared in front of him and Noah hastily ate it.

Since he had obtained the space-ring he started accumulating provisions and useful items inside it as a preparation for his travel toward the academy.

While he was eating he looked around the cavity and checked the condition of his body.

The cavity was barely two meters square large and one high, Noah lying in it occupied almost its entire space.

'Luckily it wasn't any smaller than this or I don't know if I could have centered it at that speed.'

Then he focused on his body.

'My legs are broken, so is my left arm. The skin of both my hands and feet is flayed, my right shoulder is close to being dislocated and I'm quite sure that some of my ribs are cracked.'

He looked outside the hole and saw only a faint fog lingering in the gorge.

'Adding the fact that I'm inside a place that a medium-size noble family could not claim I'd say that I'm probably dead.'

He thought again at the thunder that destroyed Basil's carriage and smiled a little.

'Well, probably dead is better than dead for sure. I wonder why Master allowed me to go in this suicide mission.'

He thought for a bit but then shook his head.

'No, if he knew all about the situation he would have surely stopped me. Yet, who could have the power to purposely keep him in the dark only to send me there?'

The face of his father appeared in his mind but he tossed the thought away.

'I'll think about it later, after all even if it was him I can't do anything about it otherwise my mother wouldn't be still suffering.'

Noah slowly straightened up, supporting himself on the wall and looked at his injuries.

'I need to recover before thinking of how to get out of here. The concentration of "Breath" down here seems even higher than on the surface so I should heal faster but I should still do something to speed the process.'

Three weapons appeared on his side as he tore his clothes apart to make some strings.

He straightened his broken limbs and used the weapons from his space-ring as splints and tied them together.

Then another piece of dried meat appeared and he slowly ate it, then he closed his eyes and focused on the "Breath" inside him to prioritize the healing process rather than the nourishment one.

Days went by with Noah motionlessly lying on the ground waiting for his injuries to heal.

Sometimes he would open his eyes to eat and drink or to change the position of the splints but most of his time was spent directing the "Breath" on his wounds.

It was only two weeks later that he was able to move again.

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Noah undid his splints and put everything back in the space-ring.

He lied on the ground to stretch his limbs and test their recovery and was happy with the results.

'I'm almost back to my peak form. In another week I should be completely healed but like this is fine, I can't waste more time.'

His injuries had mostly healed so he decided to start moving to find a way back to the Balvan mansion.

Noah peeked outside the cavity and looked upward.

Only fog filled his field of view and, apart from some dents in the rocks of the walls, there seemed to be no viable handholds.

'I fell for a few hundred meters. Climbing them back would be doable if it wasn't for these rocks being stupidly hard. From here I can't even see if the handlings would last till I reach the softer part of the wall.'

Noah stared for a long time at the wall above him until he gave up on the idea of climbing it.

'If I don't find a handhold I have to come back here through the fog, what if I can't find my original path? What if I slip once? Climbing the wall is just a bet too risky to be taken.'

He turned around with unwillingness to look at the path below him.

The fog was thicker toward the bottom of the gorge and the number of handholds was the same as the other side.

However, some yellow roots sprouted from small holes in the wall downward.

'It appears that nearing the bottom some vegetation starts to emerge. I can totally cling to them to slow my descent.'

Noah was deep in thought, he continued to look down but he could not find any flaws with the roots, the path toward the bottom of the cliff was definitely easier to tread.

'Do I really have to go there?'

He was reluctant to enter such a dangerous place but there was no other feasible option for him.

'It's either going up and try my luck, which for now has always been awful, or going down and have fun with the magical beasts that destroyed a medium-size noble family. Well, I can always wait here for someone to rescue me.'

He smiled and shook his head at the absurd idea of being saved but then his expression became cold and stern.

'No mistakes allowed from now on.'

He sharpened his mind cutting off every superfluous thought as he crouched on the edge of the cavity.

He slowly pushed his body over the hole, remaining hanged on the edge with his right hand.

When he confirmed his target below him he released the grip and slid on the wall using his body to slow the descent.

The skin on his back and feet was scraped by the attrition with the hard rocks but Noah didn't care, his eyes never left the root below him.

As he went over it, he grabbed in its direction and steadily held on it.

The root was elastic and it stretched when Noah's weight fell on it, yet it didn't break.

Noah was relieved seeing that the root could support his body and hastily looked below him to find a new one.

Nevertheless, the root in his hand moved and a soft hiss sounded from the hole.

'Fuck!'

Noah immediately understood the situation and released the grip to continue his downfall.

He grabbed on the next "root" and started searching for another one before his body even stopped.

As he found a new one he again left his hanging and descended again.

He repeated this process for more than one hundred meters but there still wasn't any sign of the bottom of the cliff.

Meanwhile, the hissing sound behind him became stronger and filled the fog over him.

Noah wasn't thinking about anything other than the next handhold and he continued sliding ignoring the sound.

At some point though, the noise appeared in the fog below him.

When Noah went for the next "root" he found out that it had two eyes and a tongue pointed in his direction.

'Earth snake!'

The "roots" on the wall were, in fact, snake-type magical beasts, specifically Earth snakes.

Before the snake could bite him though, Noah grabbed it by its throat and held on it.

'You are just a rank 1 beast, you are no different from a root in my eyes!'

These were his thoughts as he continued to slow his fall using the same method as before.

More and more snakes came out from the holes in the wall till Noah could see about a hundred of them below him.

He could not stop or retreat so he directly jumped in their pack kicking and punching any beast that attacked him.

The snakes were weak and almost harmless to a rank 2 body in the higher tier but Noah's real threat was the fall, he could not allow himself to gain speed.

Since a slow descent was no longer possible Noah chose to directly walk on the bodies of the snakes, jumping from beast to beast like they were the steps of a stair!

He was walking down the cliff on the heads of a pack of rank 1 magical beasts!

After a few hundred meters treaded in this way, the fog finally began to disperse showing the valley at the bottom of the gorge.

The environment was filled with green grass and a small river ran in the middle of it.

Noah though had no time to enjoy the scenery as a scary view unfolded in the valley below him.

Tens of yellow snakes more than seven meters long were coiled on each other on the ground with one longer than fifteen meters in their center.

Noah stared with wide eyes at the beasts while moving toward them, he could not stop even if he wanted to.

When he was at less than fifty meters from the ground, he unsheathed his sabers and let his body falling freely in the middle of the dreadful pack of snakes.

'About thirty rank 2 and one rank 3 Earth snakes, bring it on!'

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Noah landed on the pack of magical beasts.

The snakes were already awakened by the noise coming from the wall and immediately attacked Noah.

A two meters large head with the mouth open came in his direction but was instantly cut in two halves by a vertical slash.

The snakes grew restless when one of their pack died and madly pounced at Noah that was forced to block the incoming blows.

He was sent flying on the wall where he came from and brutally crashed on it.

He could not waste any time as the rank 1 snakes were jumping at him from the holes above and the rank 2 ones were encircling him.

Generally speaking, a group of rank 2 magical beasts could not hurt Noah in a normal situation.

However, he had to jump straight in the middle of their pack due to the fall and the snakes were already prepared for his arrival.

There was also the problem with the type of magical beasts they were.

Snake-types magical beasts were usually very resilient and had a strong body with few weak points, they were considered among the most dangerous kind of magical beasts.

In the case of the Earth snakes, their bodies were extremely tough and had immense strength, yet they could not secrete poison from their fangs.

'Killing the rank 2 is quite easy even if troublesome, but the rank 3 is problematic to handle in this mess.'

The rank 3 snake was in the rear of the group keeping its eyes on Noah while the rank 2 attacked him, it seemed to study his movements waiting for the right moment to strike.

Noah pushed back the snakes in front him launching six wind slashes on them, he completely ignored the rank 1 jumping from above.

The slashes hit their bodies leaving deep wounds but they seemed not to care and begun to charge again.

Noah dodged this time and ran toward the right part of the valley madly slashing at anything that came near him.

'They are too many and I'm not even at full strength. I should escape.'

The concentration of "Breath" on his right side was slightly lower than on the left one so he chose that direction.

'Magical beasts will prefer a higher concentration of "Breath", so it's safe to assume that the beasts within the areas with a lower concentration will be weaker.'

Snakes kept on trying to encircle him but he would simply slash forward creating a path through their bodies.

Dark red blood fell on him continuously as he forced his way through the blockage of the beasts.

When he was almost outside the borders of the pack, the rank 3 beast decided to strike.

Its massive body reached Noah's position in an instant and it shot on him with its mouth wide open.

Seeing the four meters large head coming from behind him, Noah jumped in the air and blocked the snake's fangs with his two sabers.

The clash flung Noah at some distance away from the pack and made him crash heavily on the ground.

'Peak rank 3!'

Thought Noah while he stood up inside the hole he created.

He was lightly injured from the previous attack but he had managed to get away from his disadvantageous position.

Noah didn't look back and ran at full speed following the decreasing concentration of "Breath".

The snakes behind him followed but could not catch up with him, their speed was below the average of the beasts on the same rank.

The chase continued for an hour.

Noah had to face the continuous assaults of other snake-type beasts that appeared in front of him while escaping.

'Fire snakes, Horned snakes, Two-headed snakes, why don't they straight up call this place snake valley?!?'

Noah cursed in his mind while relentlessly slashing at any new beast that appeared in his sight.

'If it wasn't for all these magical beasts randomly attacking me I would have shaken off the rank 3 from my back already! Luckily they are all rank 2.'

Corpses kept on accumulating on the path he was treading on and red blood kept on flowing on the river at the center of the valley.

At some point, an imponent figure appeared in front of him.

Its body was eighteen meters long and four meters thick, it had three horns on its head and from its fangs was dripping a violet dense liquid.

'Rank 3 Horned snake!'

Behind it, a handful of rank 2 horned snakes were coiled together looking in his direction.

The rank 3 Horned snake wasn't looking at him but at the rank 3 Earth snake following him, there seemed to be hatred in its eyes.

Realization dawned on Noah looking at the Horned snake's expression.

'They must have fought for the spot with the higher concentration of "Breath" and the Horned snake lost! That's why its pack is smaller. I can make use of it.'

Noah went in the direction of the Horned snake with resolution.

The beast was enraged by the small human trespassing its territory and shot out violet liquid spheres from its mouth.

Noah dodged them and sensed that when they hit the ground they corroded it instantly, leaving deep holes in it.

'To think that at rank 3 it can use its poison as a ranged attack.'

He kept on running and passed the Horned snake jumping straight in its remaining pack.

The rank 2 snakes attacked him but he simply shot out more wind slashes making sure only to wound them, they were his precious helpers after all.

He continued his escape without caring for the events happening behind him.

The rank 3 Earth snake had met with the rank 3 Horned snake and engaged in a furious battle.

Meanwhile, the pack of Earth snakes arrived and were about to overwhelm the one of Horned snakes when Noah got too far away and could not sense their fight anymore.

He ran for another hour to be sure that he was outside of their patrol area.

As he ran, the quantity of rank 2 magical beasts diminished being replaced by rank 1 beasts and the concentration of "Breath" began to resemble the one of the cavity he was in.

The beasts there seemed to be afraid of him as none of them tried to attack.

Noah looked around him for a bit and found a small cave inhabited by a few rank 1 fire snakes.

It was quite hidden and there weren't any holes on its walls so he chose to rest there.

He cleared the beasts inside it and laid on the ground to rest.

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Noah rested for half a day.

After he woke up, he ate a light meal and stretched a map in front of him.

The map was pretty simple but it described a large area of the Utra continent, it was the best one Noah managed to find in the outer circle.

'I'm going in the opposite direction of Balvan mansion but maybe there will be a path to the surface there.'

He had gone where the "Breath"'s concentration was lower during the fight which was on the contrary way of his mansion.

'I should first explore this area. I don't really want to face those beasts packs unless I'm forced to.'

He stood up and exited the cave.

He finally had the time to look carefully at the environment of the valley.

The ground was filled with green grass and light shone brightly from the fog above it.

'Strange, it has been half a day but the night did not come. Maybe the fog has something to do with this.'

The fog was constantly releasing daylight making every detail of the valley vivid and clear.

Noah continued his exploration of the area where the "Breath" was less dense.

Many rank 1 snake-type magical beasts were hiding at his sight, returning to their caves or simply crawling away.

The walls around him were steep and were not suitable for climbing, Noah almost considered to give up on the exploration of this side of the valley when something unusual appeared in his sight.

It was at the end of the valley and there were almost no magical beasts, the walls too were still steep.

However, on the ground, there were remains of a man-made building.

'How is this possible?'

Noah got close to the wrecked structure to inspect it but then a massive figure shot out in his direction.

Noah hastily unsheathed his sabers to block the attack and got flung away for some meters by it.

He raised his guard and waited for another attack to come but nothing happened.

He took a look at the immobile figure standing in front of the building.

It was a three meters tall set of armor with no face appearing on the helmet's hole.

Blue runes emitted a soft light through all its body creating a blue halo around its figure.

There were signs of combat on the armor as it was full of dents and holes.

Seeing that the armor was unmoving, Noah relaxed and thought for a bit.

'Is it defending that area? How do I destroy it?'

He slashed in the air and a blade of wind shot out in the direction of the golem.

The golem raised its arms to block the blow and only a slight mark appeared on them after they clashed with Noah's attack.

'Mh, I should be able to break it if I go all out but that would leave me powerless. I don't know if it is the only one there.'

His attention shifted to the blue runes.

'It should be fueled by those inscriptions, maybe it will stop working if I break them.'

After he set up the plan, he no longer hesitated.

He jumped straight at the golem launching three wind slashes and moved to its side.

The golem had to block the slashes and could not focus on Noah's attack from inside his guard.

The saber cut through a rune on the chest armor turning off its blue light.

'One down, nine remaining.'

Noah and the golem fought for some minutes as he would use a hit and run tactic always going out of its defense perimeter to limit the dangers of the battle.

'Ten down.'

When the last rune was pierced, the golem fell lifelessly on the ground.

Noah examined the armor a little before shaking his head and putting it in the space-ring.

'I really don't understand inscriptions. I should keep it, maybe it's worth something.'

Then he turned his head to the broken building and concentrated.

He moved toward it wary of his surroundings, he didn't know if another golem would appear.

However, everything was silent and no dangers arrived.

Noah relaxed and began to make conjectures.

'This structure was almost as big as the Balvan mansion, it should have belonged to one of the medium-size noble families that came to explore the valley.'

His eyes lit up when he realized that if the family had completely moved here, they must have moved their treasury too!

Noah began to gain speed in his exploration as he could not wait to go deeper into the building.

Sometimes he would find old skulls or bones, sometimes only useless remains.

Meanwhile, a doubt formed in his mind.

'If they were at the same level as my family, how is it possible that they were destroyed in this relatively safe area?'

The signs of struggle indicated that a battle had occurred but Noah did not understand who or what had the strength to defeat them.

'Even the pack of Earth snakes could not do it, so how did they die?'

He arrived at the inner part of the mansion while thinking that.

A big broken door divided the area and three-four meters golems were in pieces on the ground.

Noah examined the dents on their armor and concluded that it was the work of a magical beast.

'This place has more dangers than simply rank 3 magical beasts.'

A sense of restlessness grew inside him as he became determined to get out of the valley as soon as possible.

He passed the big door and entered the inner part of the mansion.

The insides were slightly more intact than the outsides and from some of the remains, you could imagine how luxurious it should have been before.

Noah moved quickly and stopped only after he found a small metal door still closed in one of the rooms.

He became excited and pushed the door open still holding his sabers.

The door was heavy and scraping sounds came from the ground as it opened.

Noah took a look at the other side and saw a small room almost empty except for a skeleton sitting on a throne with his limbs crossed.

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Noah focused all his mental energy on the skeleton but he found nothing wrong with it, so he decided to examine the room.

The room was clean and completely empty, its walls seemed more resistant than the others of the building.

'This should have been some kind of vault, which means that the treasures are with the skeleton.'

He neared the throne and inspected it.

The throne had nothing special with it and the skeleton was the same except for a box in his hands.

Noah took the box and opened it, inside there was a book with some runes on it.

Expectation was mounting in Noah's mind as he sat on the floor a started reading.

'The beasts tide broke through the outer ring, they will be here at any moments. My Assea family is doomed but our will must go on so I decided to write this book and seal it with some inscription to make it last the passage of time.'

At these words, Noah became completely focused as one thing came to his mind.

'Inheritance!'

'My family is famous for our inscriptions and animated puppets, its a noble art passed down by my ancestors but its power in combat is lower than the average martial art. That's why we came here, we wanted to nurture our descendants in this environment and study more application of our art.'

'Everything went well for a period, we were making progress and our descendants were growing strong but then we have awoken the King of this place.'

Noah was surprised for a moment before he resumed his reading.

'The King was sleeping below the area with the highest density of "Breath" and was extremely angry when it realized that there were trespassers in its territory. It sent hordes of magical beasts to attack us and the previous patriarch, my father, died in the process of defending us.'

'We were forced to hide in this place but the King only wanted snake-type creatures in its domain and so we arrived in this situation.'

Noah imagined something stronger than the dragon in his childhood and shivered at that thought.

If a patriarch of a medium-size family could not win against this King how could he hope to survive?

'We can't fly like my father and the passage to the surface is on the other side of the valley so this will be the end of my family. I will pass to you the pinnacle of our art that we managed to create, I hope that it will help you to survive this place and, one day, to avenge us by killing that King. My name is Uriah Assea, and this is my lifelong achievement.'

Noah's eyes kept going on the next pages without blinking once and a smile began to appear on his face.

'I can use it! I can use this spell!'

The spell read:

'Body-inscription spell, rank depending on the strength of the companion, no elemental requirements as the spell will be stronger if paired with a magical beast of the user's same element. The spell consists of engraving the figure of the chosen magical beasts on the user body to create a blood companion. The blood companion will have the same strength of the actual beast if its element matches with the user since it's fueled by the "Breath" in the user's body. The process to create the blood companion is complex and must be followed strictly otherwise the inscription will fail.'

'To create the inscription on the body, the user must dip a sharp stick or a weapon on the blood of the magical beast that he decided and draw its image on his body. The drawing must be done below the skin so the user must cut through it in order to reach the specific depth. After the drawing is complete, the user needs to eat the center of power of the beast to give life to its image. The center of power is generally the heart of the beast. When the drawing becomes alive, the user must subdue it with his mental energy and then he will have completed the procedure.'

There were examples of drawings that reached the standard required for the spell and many of them were of snake-like beasts, the Assea family had probably experimented a lot on them.

Noah meanwhile had a bright smile on his face.

'It is totally doable! My first spell! I wonder if I'll get the right element on the first try.'

The description of the spell continued listing its advantages and disadvantages.

'The blood companion can attack on its own or be controlled by the user so its efficiency vastly surpasses normal puppets. The user will share his "Breath" and mental energy with the companion and will need to use a part of them to feed it or to make it recover. The pressure on the sea of consciousness of the user will grow as the companion sensations will be shared with the user. The beast needs to be recently killed or the "Breath" in its heart will not suffice for giving life on the inscription. It is better if the user killed it as it will be easier to subdue on the last part of the process.

The blood of the beast must be filled with the "Breath" of the user in order to have a better control over the body of the companion, that's why the valley, with its high density of "Breath", is the perfect place to create these types of inscriptions. To remove the companion, just kill it.'

Noah's hands trembled from the excitement he was feeling and he hastily stored the book in the space-ring.

'Hahaha! It is perfect for me right now! Yet, which beast should I choose? The Fire snakes are the weaker but I didn't find any rank 3 till now and the Earth snakes have a pack too big for me to go there and kill their boss quietly.'

He thought for a bit before doing an evil smirk and looking in the direction where he came from.

'That horned snake should have survived right?'

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Noah walked slowly toward the other side of the valley.

He would stop frequently to train in the writing showed in Uriah's diary and to review the details of the spell.

'Since the body of the companion is made with its blood mixed with my "Breath" its rank is fixed. Well, theoretically it is possible to upgrade it but you would need a different technique and the risks of the companion dying will be high. It is simply safer to switch to a stronger one once you have the necessary strength to tame it.'

He was drawing on the ground the shape of a snake with his saber while holding the book in his other hand.

'I wonder if I'm being too greedy going for a rank 3 right away. If I kill it I should have some advantages in taming it, yet can I sustain it? Well, having a rank 2 companion at my level is useless anyway.'

His prey was a peak rank 3 Horned snake while he was only a rank 1 mage, it was natural for him to have some doubts.

'It doesn't say anything about making more than one companion either, I guess it depends on the pressure I can withstand with my sea of consciousness.'

There was another reason he was moving slowly and it was the "Breath"'s density.

The density was so high that the effects on his body resembled those of the "Breath" blessing he found during the events with the Ironclad spiders.

Noah was having the faint sensation of getting close to a sort of limit.

'If I stay here for a couple of months I should reach the end of the sixth cycle, and that based on the density in this area. If I go further in the valley it will take even less.'

He was purposely slowing his trip back to the mansion to make use of the quality of this place.

'There is also that King's problem, but I'm really powerless about anything related to it.'

The drawing was done and Noah nodded looking at it, he was satisfied with the result.

'Now where that snake can be?'

The rank 3 Horned snake was lying on the river to let the water filled with "Breath" enter its body.

There were many wounds on its body, probably due to its battle with the pack of Earth snakes, and no rank 2 snakes of its pack were present.

The snake was sleeping but it was right in the open, there was no way to take it by surprise.

Noah was hiding behind a rock looking at it, the saber in his hand was drawing the snake's figure on the terrain.

'Mh it looks injured, this is good, but there is no way to take it by surprise.'

The drawing was over, the snake's figure this time had three little horns on his head.

'Time to get the main ingredient.'

Noah smiled unconsciously, the prospect of having his first spell was making him elated.

He charged with his two sabers unsheathed and crossed in front of him.

The snake woke up sensing something coming in its direction and was enraged to see again the little human that caused the incident with the Earth snakes.

It immediately spewed a poisonous ball in his direction and then punched with its head where he was dodging to.

Noah jumped and rotated horizontally, continuously sending wind slashes on the body of the snake.

The slashes cut through its skin but only light wounds appeared.

'It is indeed powerful.'

Noah admitted and then assaulted it again.

Clashes kept on happening and the Horned snake fought fiercely, but new wounds appeared on its body on every clash and, added to the old ones, they were starting to affect the massive beast.

The Horned snake tried a desperate attack launching a poisonous projectile at melee range but Noah used this chance to jump over its head and pierce it with both his sabers.

The sabers stabbed deeply into the snake's skull as it started to thrash its body around the valley to remove the human from above its head.

However, Noah held strongly on the sabers and pushed them deeper into the beast's brain.

After a minute of struggles, the snake finally fell dead on the ground.

Noah jumped off its body and could not help but feel surprised.

'What an incredible vitality! Even with my blades in its brain it still resisted for so much.'

He could not put its body in the space-ring as it was too big so he hastily made a deep cut along its body.

He took out a cask from his ring and threw the water inside it away, then he put the cask below the cut to accumulate the dripping blood.

Then, he entered the cut and explored the insides of the snake's body until he found its heart.

After he came out of its body, he took off his upper clothes and washed in the river, he didn't want any form of contamination to happen during the creation of the blood companion.

Noah waited patiently for the cask to be filled and then he put everything back in his space-ring and went to hide in a cave nearby.

There were some rank 2 snakes inside but they were immediately cleared and he had to go back to the river to wash again.

When he was clean and in a safe place, he took out the cask and placed his hands on it.

"Breath" flowed from his body into the snake's blood inside the cask while his acupoints where absorbing madly the one around him.

It took him an entire day to make the blood reach the standards described in the diary and when the process was over, the blood had become a dark dense liquid.

Noah waited some more time for his body to be filled again with "Breath" and after making sure that everything was set he unsheathed a saber and dipped its tip in the liquid.

His eyes were shining in excitement as he looked at the black blade dripping the dark blood.

'Time to begin!'

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Noah took the saber with two hands and pointed its tip to his chest.

He pushed firmly and the blade stabbed his skin.

The dark blood poured in the wound and mixed with Noah's body leaving a black mark.

'Again!'

He took out the saber and dipped it in the cask and then he stabbed his chest again.

As he repeated the process, a figure began to appear on his body.

Noah took two hours to complete the drawing and when it was over it covered his entire right chest area and a half of his shoulder, as for the pain he felt during the process, it didn't even make him tremble.

Noah had, by then, survived six treatments of the Forging of Seven Hells, some cuts on his skin were nothing to endure.

Next, he used the remaining dark liquid in the cask to add details to the snake figure which took him another hour.

When the blood was over, the drawing on his body began to feel heavy, like some sort of burden was added there.

Noah stared at his shoulder and nodded in satisfaction.

'The first part is complete, now the heart.'

The heart of the snake appeared in his hand and Noah closed his eyes to concentrate on refilling the "Breath" in his body and sharpening his mental energy.

After half an hour, he was ready.

The heart was three times bigger than his hand, there was no way that he could eat it in one bite.

Noah decisively took the first bite and gulped immediately, an awful taste invaded his mouth and a strong heat began to spread from the piece of foreign flesh in his body but was suddenly absorbed by the drawing.

Noah took another bite and the same thing happened.

When he took the last one and the heart had completely vanished the temperature of the drawing began to rise until Noah thought that his shoulder was on fire.

The snake figure started to move and a tremendous pressure hit Noah's sea of consciousness.

Inside his mental sphere, the half-transparent image of a Horned snake appeared and went berserk!

The snake directly head-butted on the sphere making it tremble, it seemed that it wanted to break out at any cost from that confinement.

Noah felt an incredible pain in his head and focused on his sea of consciousness ignoring the pain on his shoulder.

His figure inside the sphere opened his eyes and flew straight at the snake, two balls of water from the sea below him rose in the air and transformed in sabers that were caught firmly by his half-transparent hands.

Noah cut directly on the snake image making it hiss in pain, but it didn't care about him and continued to hit the sphere with all its body.

Another wave of pain came from his mind that forced Noah to slow his assault.

The snake attacked again and this time a small crack appeared on the sphere.

Noah felt his consciousness fading for an instant before he focused again.

'If I let it continue like this I will surely die!'

He focused on the Kesier rune at the center of the sea which released a loud hum as an answer to Noah's calling.

The snake this time shook in pain, it could not focus again on the wall as it trembled and fell in the sea.

Noah rapidly followed and dove in its direction.

The sea was a representation of its thoughts and mental energy, it could not hurt him at all.

With the rune humming continuously and Noah's relentless assault, the snake figure became less and less corporeal until it completely shattered and was absorbed by the sea.

The shards of the snake's previous image recomposed and appeared next to the space-ring projection, Noah relaxed when he felt the connection with it.

The Horned snake was coiled lazily over the sea and it was smaller than the previous one that Noah fought.

Noah went close to it and inspected it carefully.

The snake sensed his presence and opened its eyes, raising its head to stare at Noah's figure.

After a few seconds of them exchanging stares, the snake lowered its head and Noah felt that it had surrendered.

He patted its head satisfied and came out of his sea of consciousness.

Meanwhile, the snake drawing had stopped burning but was now moving freely along his body.

Noah felt his companion moving and tried to control it with his mental energy.

The snake followed his order and moved to the chest area but some of the "Breath" inside his body was expended and the crack in his sphere released a wave of pain due to the usage of mental energy.

'I'll experiment later with this guy, now I have to heal from the injuries. Luckily, I thought of using the rune at the last moment otherwise...'

Another wave of pain came from his mind, it seemed that the crack was pressuring his sphere.

Noah decided to stay in the cave as he consumed the sea in his mind to fill the crack and close it.

In this period, he would consume all the mental energy he had to secure the wound and then go to sleep to refill it.

It took him one week to completely heal his sphere.

'Wounds on the sea of consciousness sure are troublesome, I had to focus on the crack for the whole time incapable of doing anything else. Well, at least now I have succeeded.'

"Breath" from his body and mental energy were expended as a half-transparent snake twelve meters long appeared in front of him.

The snake seemed ethereal, with just its edges completely material, the insides were filled by black smoke.

Its tail was connected to Noah's body from his left foot.

'Attack me.'

Noah ordered as more mental energy was expended.

The snake raised its head and shot at Noah that unsheathed his saber and blocked the blow, he was pushed for a few meters before stopping.

A disappointed expression was on his face when he focused again on the snake.

'Rank 3 strength but of the initial stage, while that Horned snake was definitely a peak stage. Horned snakes belong to the earth element, so now I can be sure that I'm not of that one.'

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'Well, nothing I can do about it, I should just be happy to have a rank 3 blood companion. Also, the pressure in my mind seems to work like an inferior version of the Kesier rune.'

The pressure on Noah's sea of consciousness with the addition of the snake's figure had increased greatly.

The snake's image would release a constant weight on his mental sphere steadily enlarging it.

'The effects are not as noticeable as the training in the rune, yet it's still the first increase of mental energy I had since I became a rank 1 mage.'

Since William had yet to give him the second rune, his training had halted in that field.

However, with the new burden in his mind, his sphere was finally enlarging again.

'It's a pity that I can't create another companion. I feel that my mind has reached the limits of what it can withstand.'

He controlled his companion for a bit to get used to the new ability and to familiarize himself with its peculiarities.

The snake shared all its senses with Noah, it was like having a mind inside his mind and that was what caused the constant pressure.

Noah had to get used to looking in two different directions at the same time, deciding twice the actions to make, needless to say that the expenditure of mental energy was high.

Nevertheless, he could sustain it, he was after all a rank 1 mage.

The only problem was, as always, the "Breath" expenditure.

After a whole hour of training, he had to stop to refill the "Breath" in his body which was almost completely consumed.

A bit of irritation struck him as he patted is low waist looking at it angrily.

'Fucking dantian form already! I'm sick of having this stupid limit.'

He sat on the ground to calm himself and decide on his next move, the companion had retreated in his body in the meantime.

'First, I have to get used to my new combat strength and I can do it by fighting some beasts during my trip to the other side of the valley. Second, I should take things slowly to raise the level of my body as much as possible, I don't know what dangers are lying in wait for me on the road. Lastly, I have to get out of here a go back to the mansion, I bet that Lily and Master are worried about me.'

He set his priorities and rested, in order to escape the valley he had to be at his peak form every time he decided to move.

A week passed, as a young man with his upper body naked walked cautiously in the valley.

Sometimes he would jump in some cave and come out covered in blood, sometimes rank 2 magical beasts would attack him to be devoured by a huge black shadow.

'The density of "Breath" is increasing so much that if I release my companion for only a few attacks I can refill the "Breath" expended immediately. The only problem is that my clothes get torn in the process.'

Since the companion was mostly wandering in his chest area, the upper part of his dark gym suit had been ripped during the recent fights.

'It seems that I have to store clothes in the space-ring from now on.'

He reached the middle part of the valley, in the area where he first had fallen and a familiar scene presented to him.

A large pack of rank 2 Earth snakes was coiled around a rank 3 one.

The rank 3 snake was sleeping and some violet spots were present on his yellow body, the fight with the Horned snake had left some injuries on its body.

'I guess it is time to test my real strength now. I wonder if it will be happy to meet its old friend.'

The blood companion came out from his body and covered him, Noah was inside its gaseous interiors being carried by the snake.

This was one of the applications of the spell that Noah managed to discover, not only the body of the snake would act as a form of protection but it could also hide him pretending that he was some kind of magical beast.

This was also the best option he could think about in the unfortunate event that the King found him.

The companion moved toward the pack alerting its rank 2 members.

The rank 3 also woke up but looked confusedly in its direction, it seemed that it found some similarities with its old enemy but, at the same time, it was different.

It hissed an order to the rank 2 snakes and they moved in the companion's direction.

Before they could encircle it though, the companion raised his huge body in the air and sibilated at them.

A rank 3 beast was a leader among rank 2 beasts, and even with its initial stage strength, it was still a threat to their pack.

The group halted their advancement for a moment and, in that instant of hesitation, a small figure shot out from the body of the companion severing immediately two snakes heads.

A small gaseous line connected the small figure to the one of the ethereal snake.

The pack moved their attention to Noah but at that moment the blood companion attacked and bit the head on one of the snakes crushing it one blow!

In only one move three rank 2 snakes had died.

The rank 3 Earth snake got enraged and shot in their direction but, in the meantime, Noah had already pierced another snake's head and the companion was chewing on another beast.

When the big Earth snake arrived, it directly head-butted toward the blood companion which was forced some meters back from the clash.

A wave of pain hit Noah as more "Breath" was expended to heal the injuries just suffered by his snake but he was prepared for that.

He slashed promptly at the rank 3 beast leaving a deep wound slightly below its head.

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The rank 3 Earth snake retreated once the wound was inflicted but was met by the fangs of the blood companion that appeared behind it.

Noah had made it retreat inside his body and released it toward the beast to speed its attack.

The companion stabbed its fangs into the rank 3 beast's body and held firmly onto it and Noah followed shooting a dozen wind slashes.

The Earth snake could not avoid the assault since Noah's snake was keeping it still and was hit by the river of flying slashes.

Wounds appeared on its body as it hissed in pain, meanwhile, the rank 2 snakes left behind in its retreat had reached them and were jumping on the two enemies.

Noah once again absorbed the companion and launched it at the pack while he jumped at the rank 3 beast.

The blood companion thrashed out its body on the tens of rank 2 beasts and madly attacked without caring for the injuries it was experiencing.

Every time its body was bitten or hit, some of Noah's "Breath" would be expended to heal it.

In the few minutes since the battle had begun, Noah's storage of "Breath" was halved.

While the blood companion was keeping the pack away, Noah engaged in a solitary fight with the rank 3 snake assaulting it relentlessly.

He managed to heavily injure the beast in the initial clashes and was pressing in his attacks to slowly drain away the strength of the snake.

The Earth snake was a rank 3 beast, its intelligence was superior to the one of weaker magical beasts.

It understood that with the initial advantage taken by the invaders its situation was turning grim so it continued to defend its head waiting for the pack to come in rescue.

Noah though, could not waste time as his storage of "Breath" diminished rapidly with every second that he spent fighting and the absorption from his acupoints was barely enough to sustain the blood companion's battle.

He violently stabbed in the snake's skin accumulating wounds on its body as blood rained down from its figure.

When more than forty deep cuts were on the beast's body, it finally slowed down in its movements and Noah managed to deliver a firm lunge in one of its eyes.

The rank 3 Earth snake convulsed like crazy when the saber stabbed in its head but was stopped by a huge mouth clenching on its throat, the blood companion had appeared below it and immediately attacked.

The pack of rank 2 snakes could not keep up with the speed of Noah's snake retreating in his body and were left behind watching their leader's last moments.

The Earth snake collapsed on the ground and Noah stabbed once again his saber in its head while his companion ripped off a big part of its throat leaving their enemy's head hanging on a small piece of skin.

The rank 3 Earth snake was dead!

Its pack stared at the two figures near its body for a moment and then dispersed in fear.

Noah looked at the retreating snakes and heaved a sigh of relief, he was almost exhausted and there were still around twenty rank 2 snakes in the pack.

If they had attacked, he would probably have had to hide in the companion's body and retreat.

He plucked out the fangs of every Earth snake's corpse he found on the ground and hastily retreated in the first cave he managed to find after putting them inside the space-ring.

He didn't dare to do that with the corpse of the rank 3 Horned snake because of the strong poison on its fangs.

When he was in a safe space he relaxed and let the fatigue from the combat assault him.

'This battle was so dangerous! If my "Breath" had exhausted during the fight I would have been doomed. Yet, having this guy assaulting from any direction I want is really useful, I wonder how stronger it would be if it was of my element.'

The head of the companion came out of Noah's body and stared at him.

Noah simply patted its head while continuing in his thoughts.

'The capacity to enter and exit my body at will with that speed is definitely one of the stronger aspects of the spell. Another one is the healing ability of the companion that is almost limitless if I have enough "Breath" to keep it going, only a really strong attack might force the companion to hibernate to recover.'

Noah took some meat from his space-ring and ate till he was full, then he neared the end of the cave and laid himself on the ground to sleep.

The ethereal snake had its head outside Noah's body staring carefully at its surroundings.

'The expenditure is not even that much since the blood companion is mostly autonomous, only one order will keep it working for hours. I guess that is balanced by the requirements for the activation of the spell and the constant pressure that is forced on the user due to the sharing of their senses.'

He remembered some of the words in Uriah's diary and nodded internally.

'No wonder Uriah called it "the pinnacle of their art", only by fighting as two instead of alone its power resemble the magic that Orson used and this without considering the other aspects of the blood companion and the fact that our elements are not even the same.'

Noah was extremely satisfied with the power of the spell and knew that the one showed in the previous battle wasn't its full potential.

'When I get the dantian and find out my element I would have to change companion otherwise I would be wasting the real strength of the spell.'

He turned to look at the snake's head that was guarding him and smiled a little.

'I guess I should give it a name while I keep it. Let's go with Assea in honor of those that created the technique.'

Then, Noah closed his eyes and slept, with his companion now named Assea rigorously guarding him.

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When Noah woke up, Assea was still on his side with just its head sticking out of his body.

He felt completely rested, both mentally and physically, but he knew that the "Breath" in his body could sustain his companion for one entire night only because of the "Breath"'s density in this place.

'Now it's time for the really dangerous stuff. Uriah's diary said that the passage to the surface is on the other side of the valley but it should also be where the King sleeps since the concentration of "Breath" keeps on rising in that direction.'

A stern expression was on his face as he ate and looked randomly in front of him still deep in his thoughts.

After some time, when he had finished his meal, he sighed and shook his head.

'If it's death that waits for me than so be it, no reason to hesitate.'

He stood up and a cold determination was exuded from him.

Mages had a mind so strong they could affect some of the environment around them, Noah wasn't on that level yet, but he still radiated a sort of pressure depending on his state of mind.

What he was spreading then was a pure resolution to do anything in his power to survive.

With his mind focused and his body rested, Noah moved out of the cavity.

His advance was slow, he was wary of anything that moved outside of his perception and he would stop every time to carefully inspect the area in front of him.

'I'm not gonna make another mistake like the one with the roots on the wall, and with this pace, I can even raise the level of my body a little before reaching the other side.'

Noah would take any chance to increase his strength before going into such a precarious situation.

However, something unusual came to his attention during the trip.

'There is not even a single magical beast.'

No snakes were present in this area of the valley, it was completely void of any beast's life forms despite the density of "Breath" being way higher than before.

Noah continued his slow voyage full of doubts.

Every time he felt slightly tired he would find a cave and rest, only to move again when his strength was at its peak.

Four days passed without him encountering any threat.

'Maybe I'm lucky and all the magical beasts are somewhere busy with something.'

Of course, that was not the case.

When he neared the end of the valley and the wall of its other side was visible, Noah saw a scene that almost made him lose hope.

The last part of the canyon was large with a waving sea in it and a small white mountain at its center.

Nevertheless, the sea was not made of water but of thousands of slithering bodies.

Noah could only stare astonished at the view.

Thousands of rank 1 snakes, hundreds of rank 2 and about one hundred of rank 3 were all coiled together forming a multicolored sea.

'I'm dead if I go in there, dantian or not there is no way I can survive.'

Noah watched attentively the huge pack trying to find anything that he could use and noticed a few details.

'Why do they seem so malnourished? And what is that thing near the mountain?'

The snakes were incredibly thin, Noah thought he could hear the rumbles of their stomachs but they weren't doing anything about that.

Sometimes a snake would bite a beast near it and continue on its way like it did the most natural thing in the world.

Most shocking thing was that the snake that received the wound would just allow it uncaring of its body being eaten.

There also seemed to be relief in those that were hurt and fear in those who ate!

Noah's conjectures of this world nearly crumbled watching their unnatural behavior.

Near the mountain, at its base, a big yellow pile of what seemed snake's skin was rhythmically emitting soft rays of light.

'What is all of this?'

Noah decided to study the mass of snakes for some time before determining his next action.

Two more days passed with him trying to find some hidden pattern in their conduct to exploit but all he managed to notice was that the pile of snake's skin had accelerated the cadence of the leakage of light.

He had a hypothesis about that event which made him restless.

'Don't tell me that it is a magical beast in hibernation to evolve? But, considering its dimensions, wouldn't that be a rank 4?'

Noah had never fought a rank 4 beast but he was sure that he wasn't its match.

'If it is really like that then it would be better to move before it evolves. The passage should be behind the mountain and since the snakes seem so passive I might be able to reach it disguised as Assea.'

He resolved himself and summoned his blood companion, entering its body.

He was about to go out in the open to join the sea when the cocoon cracked and a loud hiss resounded in the valley.

A giant yellow snake emerged from the pile of flesh, it was thirty meters long and it raised its body in the air as to show the pack its achievement.

The pack looked at it with a bit of awe as its pressure unfolded in that area of the valley, even Noah was affected and trembled a little inside Assea's body.

At that moment though, a tremor ran through the canyon and rocks began to fall from the walls due to the earthquake.

All the snakes in the pack lowered their heads in fear in the direction of the white mountain.

Even the newly evolved rank 4 beast turned to look at the mountain with reverence as a loud hiss engulfed the valley.

Noah felt pain in his ears as the sound hit him and had to focus completely on them to avoid becoming deaf.

When the noise stopped everything was silent, none of the thousands of snakes were uttering a sound.

Noah looked in the direction of the hill and, in his bewilderment, he saw that the mountain was moving.

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Noah did not move, or to say it better, he could not do that.

The pressure released by the mountain was immense, everyone had to stay still to resist it.

Then, the mountain showed a reptilian head large seven meters that went in front of the rank 4 snake that had just evolved.

Only then Noah could make out the true form of the mountain.

It was a colossal snake more than fifty meters long and its skin was so white that it seemed to shine on its own.

Looking at it, he wondered how it was possible for a being to reach such splendor with a material body.

The snake appeared like some sort of godly existence, surpassing anything Noah had ever seen in his two lives.

The rank 4 snake looked majestic on its own but in front of the King of the valley, it was just another member of its pack.

'W-What is that monster?'

Noah managed to have this sole thought before his mind underwent another shook due to the following events.

The King and the rank 4 stared at each other for a long time before the rank 4 lowered its head in submission.

The King then opened its mouth and laid its head on the ground waiting calmly.

The rank 4 snake looked at it for a moment before entering the King's mouth on its own will!

It was thirty meters long and it took a while before its body entered completely in the King's mouth but the latter just remained still during the whole process.

When the body of the newly evolved snake disappeared, the King closed its mouth and raised its head to look at the pack below it.

It released a soft hiss that made Noah shake in the distance and that set off a change in the behavior of the snakes.

They started to eat each other violently uncaring for their own lives.

Blood flowed endlessly as the epitome of cannibalism unfolded in front of Noah.

It was only when their number was almost halved that the King hissed again to make them stop and coiled on itself to resume its sleep.

The snakes of the pack, having eaten fully, were showing signs of becoming stronger, some specimen seemed even to be on the verge of breaking through a rank.

However, there was no happiness or excitement in the beast's eyes but only helplessness and fear.

Before the King settled again though, Noah noticed a hole in the wall behind its body that had a faint light coming from it.

The snakes resumed their aimlessly slithering and Noah assimilated Assea back in his body as he fell on the ground in his hiding spot.

His hands were shaking and his mind was in turmoil, it took him an entire hour before he managed to calm himself.

'Fuck, fuck, FUCK!'

Countless curses sounded in his mind as he took control of his body again.

'I could only tremble at that thing sight! Its sole presence is almost enough to kill me, and the patriarch of the Assea family fought it? How many monsters like them there are in this world?'

He was quite proud of his achievements in this life, after all, he had trained for less than five years and he was only a bit more than thirteen years old.

That pride though was shattered seeing how meaningless his accomplishments were in front of such might.

When he reviewed the previous scenes in his mind he could only find one word to describe them.

'Cruel.'

He thought.

'The world is incredibly cruel.'

He was calm when he understood the situation in the valley.

'The King forces the snakes in its pack to eat each other and it waits until a rank 4 is born between them. Then it eats it to become stronger and repeats the cycle. I believe that with the concentration of "Breath" in that area and with the forced cannibalism he manages to create one every few decades.'

A feeling of respect appeared inside Noah as he looked again in the direction of the King.

'All of this only to increase its already incredible strength by a little. Even as a beast, its determination in its pursuit of power is commendable.'

He shook his head and a complex smile formed on his face.

'I simply kill everyone in my way while it actively exploits its own kind to reach a higher realm. Our wills are on a completely different level.'

He stood still for some more time until the fire of ambition flared up from his eyes.

'I can't die now! I don't want to die after I saw such an otherworldly strength. I want to reach that level, I want to surpass it!'

He moved his gaze away and entered the closest cave he managed to find.

'First I'll complete the sixth cycle.'

One month went by.

Noah spent his days meditating to increase the absorption rate of his acupoints.

He also practiced in his usage of the blood companion as he needed to be perfect in his snake form to succeed in his escape.

He had seen the hole in the wall behind the King and that was the only way to the surface that he could think of.

'Uriah wrote that the passage is there and since that one is the only cavity I could see, I have to bet on that.'

The rest of his time was spent looking at the pack of snakes.

There were no changes in their behavior during the month that passed and since they had eaten recently, only some of them had resumed giving small bites to those around them.

He had looked attentively to all the rank 3 in the pack and ascertained that no one of them was ready to evolve.

When he woke up one day, he was happy to find out that his acupoints had stopped working and he felt that his body had reached a familiar limit.

His sixth cycle was complete!

He was ready to leave.

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Noah reached his usual observation spot and looked toward the pack.

The snakes were doing their typical efforts in resisting the hunger to avoid any increase in their strength, yet their will to live wouldn't allow them to simply starve to death.

Everything looked the same as the other days, so Noah decided that it was time to move.

He could not increase his power any more than that, it was better to move before something unexpected happened.

Noah entered Assea's body and slowly slithered toward the mass of snakes.

The beasts in the pack were a bit surprised to find a new specimen joining them, no one would force himself to undergo their kind of life.

Nevertheless, they did nothing and just watched for a moment as the black ethereal snake entered the coiled crowd.

Noah sank inside the sea of bodies and began to move using his mental energy as a compass to not lose his way.

He had to reach the wall at the end of the valley and he would rather avoid bumping in the King's body in the process.

His advance was slow as he preferred to maintain the same pace of the specimens around him.

Noah's trip across the sea of snakes had begun.

He didn't dare to be on the surface but the presence of the King disturbed his orientation so he had to systematically emerge to understand his position.

Sometimes he would feel a sharp pain due to Assea's sensations as the other snakes around it took small bites of its insubstantial skin.

However, he simply ignored it, he had already considered this situation while formulating his plan.

Every time he was bitten, he would sink deeper into the pack to heal his companion.

Repeating this cycle, he was slowly getting closer to his target.

He was completely immersed in snake's bodies and the King radiated a constant pressure that made him nervous.

Noah felt like suffocating inside the pack but Assea's protection managed to make him keep going.

It took him half a day to crawl across the thousands of beasts and he felt extremely tired due to the constant stress he had to endure.

However, the scene that he saw on the other side was disheartening.

There were no snakes on the back of the King's body, or rather there could not be.

The cavity radiating light was right in front of him but he could not go for it recklessly.

The King had its head pointed in the hole's direction and every time he breathed, pieces of terrain would crumble and the ground would corrode.

Even in its sleep, its breath could kill any weaklings!

Noah saw a rank 2 Two-headed snake slip from the pack and ending in the area in front of the King's head.

Its body was shredded into pieces as soon as the King breathed out!

A conical area of death started from the King's head and ended at the entrance of the passage in the wall.

'Now I know why no beast is escaping, they simply can't.'

The last dilemma that bothered him when he created the plan was solved.

'With its strength, it should be able to subdue snakes more powerful than rank 4. Does it immediately eat them because they might manage to escape?'

The constant pressure it radiated forced the snakes to stay in the pack and its breath closed their only way out.

'The real question is: can I survive till I reach the cavity?'

If Noah entered the area of death from its closest point to the passage the distance would be around one hundred meters.

With his speed and the rate at which the King exhaled, he would need to survive two to three attacks.

'I don't have any other option, I will first replenish my mental energy and then go in.'

The "Breath" in his body was not a problem since he completed the sixth cycle and since the density of "Breath" in this area was the highest of the valley.

However, the mental energy he had to use to move to the other side of the pack was plenty and he needed to refill it before crossing the last hurdle.

'Luckily I only need to give an order and Assea will do that autonomously until I have "Breath" to support its actions.'

One of the strong points of the Body-inscription spell was that the user had to spend only a bit of mental energy when commanding the blood companion, the rest of the time it will just act on its own following the order.

That meant that, apart from the initial expenditure and the pressure from sharing its senses, the mental energy's cost was extremely low.

In a place where the "Breath" was so concentrated the blood companion could work almost endlessly with just a bit of mental energy.

Of course, this was also due to Noah's body-nourishing technique as it absorbed "Breath" on its own without Noah's need to meditate.

Noah chose to rest in the pack of snakes.

He fell asleep inside Assea's body while it quietly moved at the edges of the empty conical area.

The pressure from the King was still there so it took longer for the water level inside Noah's mental sphere to rise till it occupied half of it.

When he woke up, he was met with the familiar scene of snake's bodies coiled on each other.

'Life or death is all in those one hundred meters.'

Assea moved toward the edge of the pack, in the closest place to the cavity.

Noah cut off any useless thoughts from his mind, focusing only on moving forward and enduring any pain that assaulted him.

He stared at the King's head waiting for the moment it exhaled to have the best timing possible.

As the breath smashed on the wall and dissipated, Noah jumped at full speed toward the cavity.

The snakes in the pack saw a black snake moving in the area of death toward the hope that they had long abandoned.

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Assea moved at full speed alongside the wall.

Noah inside it was only looking at the path in front of him, nothing else was worth his attention.

Some of the snakes in the pack started to hiss in his direction as if it was some kind of entertainment.

Then, when he had crossed a bit less than fifty meters, the first blow arrived.

What Noah initially felt was an incredible pressure that flung him into the wall.

Then, the pain came.

Assea's body was the first line of defense and was shredded into pieces almost immediately!

Noah forced its body to reconstruct but it only delayed the impact on his body for a moment as Assea was wrecked again in just an instant.

He slammed into the wall and many cuts appeared on his skin but, before he suffered any serious injury, he summoned Assea a third time to endure the rest of the attack.

Its body was destroyed till only a silhouette remained but the first blow was successfully blocked!

A huge amount of mental energy was expended because Noah had to withstand the pain Assea felt having its body destroyed three times.

However, as soon as the pain stopped, Noah started to run again, no hesitation was present in his actions.

His eyes were still fixed on the road and he left a trail of blood due to the injuries.

He didn't dare to use the "Breath" to stop the bleeding because all of it was being used for Assea's healing.

The pack of beasts yet had noticed his disguise and began to hiss madly at the sight of the small human hidden in the snake's body.

As if to shut down their noise, the King snorted lightly sending another stream of air in the area in front of it.

Noah had moved for only thirty more meters before the second blow came.

He was once again slammed into the wall and more wounds appeared on his body every time Assea's figure collapsed.

Nevertheless, he held on.

His body was completely red due to the massive blood loss and was excoriated in many parts, but the vitality of a peak rank 2 body gave him the strength to keep running even in that condition.

Noah movements were slower than before but he still managed to cross the last twenty meters entering the mouth of the cavity.

The snakes behind him hissed even more crazily seeing that he had succeeded in reaching the escape route and began to move in its direction as to follow his example.

The King woke up and roared to stop the riot of its pack and a shock wave hit Noah that had just entered the passage.

He hadn't relaxed yet so Assea's body was still covering him.

Its body crumbled at the impact and its figure inside Noah's sea of consciousness cracked.

Noah felt a tremendous pain in his head before getting hit by the roar.

He could not resist even if he tried and his body was sent flying along the passage.

Blood came out from his mouth, ears, and eyes but all he could do was protecting his head to avoid any fatal damage.

He slammed repeatedly on the walls in front of him but the strength of the roar continued to push him forward and he was impotent in front of its might.

Then, he crashed again but this time the rocks of the wall were soft enough for him to dig in them.

His body created a small hole through the stones and finally stopped.

No noise came out of the hole as Noah had fainted due to the last collision.

Two days passed before Noah opened his eyes.

His sight was cloudy and a constant buzz invaded his ears.

It took him a while to remember the situation he was in and a bright smile appeared on his face when he understood that he had survived.

Then he laughed loudly but had to stop quickly because a wave of pain hit him as he moved.

'I don't want to see a snake anymore in my life.'

After he thought that, he fainted again.

One month later, in an area near Twilboia Cliff.

A field full of shining flowers spanned for two hundred meters.

This place was called Iano field due to the rare flowers that grew there.

The Iano flowers had no use to the cultivators but were very appreciated by couples since they had the ability to gather sunlight making their own figure shine.

At night, they resembled the starry giving a romantic vibe to the scenery.

A small-size noble family called Wilford possessed this field and used it as a small form of income, selling the right to spend the night in that place to anyone that could afford it.

A guard of the Wilford family was yawning lazily near the fence that determined the entrance to the field and a line of peasants and rich people was waiting for their moment to get inside.

As the line moved on, the guard raised the price of the ingress arousing the anger of the costumers.

However, any time someone tried to complain, he would proudly show his chest where the emblem of his family was and say arrogantly:

"Are you saying that me, an honored guard of the Wilford family, would dare to profit on lowly commoners?"

This was a line he practiced a lot to shut down the complaints about his attitude, after all a small-size family was still a noble family.

This time though, something unexpected happened as soon as he said that.

A slash made of wind shot out from the ground below of the Iano flowers.

A small opening formed showing an intricate passage below the field, illuminated by the shining roots of the flowers.

Noah came out of the opening uncaring of his surroundings.

'To think that the light in the passage was caused by these roots.'

He was almost naked, only some strips of clothes remained on his lower body.

He looked around him and found the guard with his mouth open looking in his direction.

Noah raised the saber in his hand to point at him and spoke in a calm voice.

"Hey you, where is this place?'

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---

Read Birth of the Demonic Sword - Chapter 65 - 65. Rank 5 online free - Novel Full

A carriage with the emblem of the Winford family moved in the direction of Balvan mansion.

When Noah came out of the ground, the guard wanted to obtain a refund for the damage he had caused on the field but it was enough to say the name "Balvan" to receive his apologies and a ride back home.

That and a little threat of course.

The ride was gladly accepted by Noah since he had yet to fully recover from his injuries.

He had decided to go out of the passage in the valley as soon as he was able to move for fear of another roar from the King.

The family even gave him a new set of clothes so he could hide again his space-ring in there.

During the travel, he focused mostly on healing Assea's cracked figure in his sea of consciousness and when he arrived at the mansion he was back at full strength.

Looking at his home he could not help but smile a little.

'I'm finally back!'

Turning back in time a little, about two weeks after Noah fell in the canyon.

William was reading a report in the guards' building.

As he continued to read, his hands began to shake and an angry expression formed on his face.

Then, the reading stopped and the sheet he was holding disintegrated.

'Fucking nobles, they sent Noah into a trap!'

He hurriedly went outside of the mansion and ran in the direction of Twilboia Cliff.

It took him a week to reach the gorge but all he saw were corpses and remains of the battle.

He searched all the bodies but he could not find Noah's one.

'The report said that the caravan was assaulted here but he is not among the corpses.'

He fell deep in thought as he analyzed the situation.

'It's unlikely that he was taken hostage by the Lansay family, they have no use for him. Where is he though?'

His gaze eventually fell on the cliff and William's eyes widened.

'Don't tell me that he decided to escape in the canyon! That is one of the danger zones of this area.'

He neared the cliff and stared at the space below it, only fog occupied his field of view.

'If you really are down here, may the Heaven have pity on you, my dear disciple.'

He stayed in that position for a whole day praying for Noah's well being.

Then he shook his head and sighed, going back on the road for his mansion.

'It's better to hide this news from his mother.'

Months passed and his worry began to transform in helplessness.

He forbid every guard to speak about the incident but ultimately, some rumors about Noah's situation began to spread.

Many believed that he had escaped and joined the Lansay family in exchange for cultivation resources.

Others that he was taken as a prisoner to trade with the Balvan family.

Lily, however, had a bad feeling about Noah's condition as she noticed a change in Rhys' attitude.

He would visit her less frequently and was less violent during their nights spent together.

Her worries accumulated but she could do nothing but harass William with questions.

Nevertheless, she soon understood that even William knew nothing about her son's situation.

The waiting was becoming suffocating but nothing could be done.

Then, after more than four months from Noah's departure, the happy news came.

Noah had returned to the mansion!

Lily and William ran immediately from their respective buildings to the front gate of the mansion.

William was the first to arrive and stood in place looking at the smiling youth on the carriage of the Wilford family.

The youth had long black hair and shining blue eyes.

He was wearing large clothes that didn't seem fit for his stature and two sabers were sheathed on his back.

A mature look was exuded from him and William could not help but smile radiantly at that sight.

'He has grown.'

Before he could move toward him though, Lily's figure passed him and jumped directly on the smiling youth.

"I told you to be careful and yet you disappear for so long! Don't you know how worried I was? Enough, I'm not letting you out of your room for an entire month, no wait, let's make it two months!"

Lily was half hugging half rebuking her son but it was clear that she was happy from the bottom of her heart to see Noah safe.

It took Noah and an entire day to calm her mother and reassure her, while William could only look from some distance at the family reunion.

Lily feel asleep in Noah's room that day, a smile was present on her sleeping figure.

The next day, he spent all his morning with his mother before going to William's room to deliver a report.

William too was smiling unconsciously but his face became stern when Noah described the environment of the valley.

He said nothing about the Assea family or the spell but he had one doubt since he escaped the canyon.

"Master, which rank the King was?"

William was still digesting Noah's speech when he heard the question and fell deep in thought.

After some hesitation he said in a soft voice:

"Probably rank 5. You said that you opened a passage to the valley on the Iano field right? I must warn the Shosti family, they will manage the situation. I'm afraid that this circumstance is too dangerous for a medium-size family to handle.'

Noah became interested.

"Will they kill the King?"

William shook his head.

"A battle with an entity on that level will shake all their area of power, they can't afford that. Also, the valley would probably be destroyed in the process and they would lose the only benefits they could get. They will just secure the passage and make it a forbidden zone.'

Noah felt a bit disappointed since he wanted to see a battle of that might but what William said was reasonable.

Then, he remembered something and smiled shamelessly toward his Master.

"You know, my sixth cycle is complete. We might do the last treatment immediately."

Looking at the smiling kid, a part of William wanted to throw him again in the cliff.

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Noah was in the torture room below the guards' building, tied to the metal table.

A black and smelly liquid came out from his body as he absorbed "Breath" in the point where his acupoints once were.

Noah had already predicted that situation so he was calm during the process even though some scream was still yelled from time to time.

Assea's figure was hidden under the clothes on his lower body and was waiting patiently for the process to be over.

A huge amount of "Breath" was being accumulated in Noah's body, strengthening and refining it.

The process lasted for about ten minutes before he could finally form the new acupoints.

These acupoints were crystalline and seemed incredibly sturdy.

They absorbed "Breath" at an unimaginable speed and Noah felt an immense surge of power coming from his body.

He nodded to William that was at his side and he undid the bindings to set Noah free.

A smile was on William's face as he saw that his disciple was finally released from that dangerous technique.

"You really did it."

He patted Noah's shoulder uncaring of the filth on it.

Noah nodded again happily, he wanted to test his new power right away but his mental energy was almost completely depleted and he could not sense things accurately.

However, before he managed to bow to his Master, something unexpected happened.

A strange sensation hit his low waist and a small empty ball formed there.

Noah touched the spot but felt no uneasiness in having this new organ.

William noticed his behavior and inspected the spot where he was pointing.

His mouth opened and his eyes widened, he put one hand on his head and exclaimed in a soft voice.

"That is not possible."

Noah looked at his Master's expression and was confused, then an idea hit his mind and he widened his eyes too.

"Don't tell me?"

William nodded and carefully inspected the spot again.

"Your dantian formed."

Noah was stunned but then he exulted loudly.

A wave of pain was delivered from his tired head which forced him to calm down.

"But Master, I'm only thirteen and a half years old. Last time you spoke about gaining months not a whole year."

William mumbled with himself for a little before answering.

"Rank 1 mage, rank 2 body for most of your growth and now rank 3 body. I told you that the centers of power were linked but I never thought they could be influenced this much."

Noah's thoughts were slow since he had just done the treatment and could not keep up with his Master's reasoning.

He was still inspecting the new organ when he thought of something.

"Does it means that now I can know my element?"

William nodded but then he shook his head and put a stern expression.

"First, go wash and rest, I'll make the needed preparation in the meantime. Meet me here tomorrow morning."

Noah was a bit unwilling to go and wanted to ask more question but another wave of pain hit him so he decided to follow his Master's order.

He bowed deeply, there was only gratitude toward the man in front of him.

"It's only thanks to you that I am growing this much. So thank you, Master!"

William looked at the young man covered in filth and memories about him emerged.

The first time he received the command to take him as a disciple he thought that he would be some kind of nanny but Noah surpassed every expectation that he had for him.

He had to admit that his disciple made him proud beyond reason.

William ruffled his dirty hair a bit and smiled.

"Just go now, we will talk more tomorrow."

Noah left and the happy expression on William's face transformed in a worried one.

'This time I really can't cover you.'

When Noah woke up the next day he could clearly feel the changes in his body.

He felt an incredible vitality coming from it and when he checked the amount of "Breath" he had he was astonished.

'This is enough for more than one hundred attacks!'

Then he remembered the dantian event and his excitement built up.

'I wonder how the training will work and there is even the question about my element.'

He hurriedly went into the guards' building and then in the underground prison.

William was waiting for him with a small book and a transparent stone as big as a fist.

"Read this, it is a rank 1 cultivation technique for the dantian, it has no limitation to the element of the user so it's perfect to determine the cultivator's aptitude. Every family uses it."

Noah took the book and hastily read it.

It was a simple respiration method to be done in a fixed position, with his status as a rank 1 mage he memorized it instantly.

"Ready?"

William asked and Noah nodded in response.

William then gave the stone to Noah and explained.

"This is a Pharos stone. It has the peculiar characteristic of changing color based on the element of the "Breath" that passes through it. Put it on your waist and start meditating in the cultivation technique, your body will naturally absorb the element of your aptitude, changing its color.'

Noah didn't waste any time and sat on the ground in the cross-legged position indicated in the technique.

He put the stone on his waist and began to practice.

The "Breath" moved toward his body and entered the small empty dantian, filling it with a gaseous substance.

As the gaseous "Breath" entered the dantian, it pressed on its surface, enlarging it.

The pace was slow but also relaxing, Noah felt a bit more refreshed every time his dantian was charged.

After about one hour, William's voice sounded.

"You can stop."

Noah looked at his Master's face and saw that he had a worried expression.

Then he lowered his gaze on the stone on his waist.

The Pharos stone was completely black.

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Noah stared at the black stone for some time before raising his gaze toward his Master.

"What does that mean?"

William still had his worried expression when he answered.

"Darkness."

Noah was surprised but happy.

'I have one of the rarest elements, won't that mean that my potential is ensured?'

However, when he realized this point he became worried too.

'Doesn't this imply that the inner circle will try to suppress me?'

He looked at William and spoke with a pleading voice.

"Can we hide this news from the inner circle?"

William shook his head.

"The Pharos stone is quite rare as a mineral. It has to be given back to the family in order to clean it from the "Breath" that tainted it to use it again in the future."

Then he lowered his head and continued.

"Actually, I already reported that your dantian formed. I needed to say the name of the cultivator that I had to test to borrow the stone."

Noah fell deep in thought.

'So they will be able to discern my element as soon as they get the stone back. I have a bad feeling about this.'

Noah sighed and then gave the Pharos stone back to William.

He put it away and then sat in front of his disciple.

"Do not linger too much on things that you can't control. For now, just focus on your dantian, I still have to explain how it works."

Noah nodded and listened attentively to his Master.

"Generally speaking, the rank of a cultivator is determined by the stage his dantian is in. I am a rank 3 mage with a rank 4 body and a rank 3 dantian, which makes me a rank 3 cultivator."

Noah was amazed, he knew that his Master was strong but he didn't imagine he was this strong!

"The dantian is where we store the majority of our "Breath", but the "Breath" is an energy too powerful for normal bodies to handle. Tell me, what will it happen if you accumulate too much power and you can't contain it?"

Noah's answer was immediate.

"You would explode."

William nodded and resumed the explanation.

"Exactly. I must say that if the family didn't give me a rank 4 body nourishing technique I would still be stuck at the last stage of the rank 2 dantian. That is about how much a rank 3 body can handle."

He went silent for a moment to sort his thoughts and then continued.

"Every rank of the dantian has three stages: gaseous, liquid, and solid. Every stage is vastly more powerful than the previous one. The training of the dantian consists of two phases: accumulation and compression. First, you accumulate "Breath" and enlarge the dantian till its maximum potential, then you compress it to make the "Breath" inside it change state. The process is not so easy as it might seem and cultivators usually have pills to help them in advancing stages. Actually, going through the compression phase is wearisome for the dantian and a failure might even damage it permanently. Remember to never attempt to break through if you don't have the necessary mental energy or some pills."

Noah maintained a calm expression but inside he was cheering.

'Now I know how to use the Earth pill!'

"Also once you are in the next stage your dantian will only accumulate "Breath" of that density so the process will be slower."

William pointed at the book near Noah.

"That is a rank 1 cultivation technique and doesn't even have requirements for the element, which makes it the lowest tier of cultivation techniques. A rank 1 technique can at most take you to the peak of the rank 1 dantian and there are specific ones for each element which speed up the absorption process. To break through ranks you need a reagent that will heat your dantian, purifying the "Breath" inside it. The solid "Breath" will be consumed and only a strand of gas will remain that will be of a higher purity than the gaseous "Breath" of the previous stage. Then you start again to cultivate in the stages."

Noah was about to speak when William stopped him and added something.

"Never advance in rank even if you find the reagent if you don't have the corresponding technique for the next rank. What's the point of reaching a higher rank if then you can't accumulate the purer "Breath"? Always remember that the technique comes first, and if you can, try to match it with your element, some higher tier techniques can also give peculiar proprieties to the "Breath" you store."

Noah finally had a complete image of the powers of a cultivator and was eager to go back to his room to train all day in the rank 1 technique.

He smiled innocently and pointed at himself.

"Master, so now I'm a rank 1 cultivator?"

William nodded and smiled.

"Yes, rank 1 cultivator in the gaseous stage."

Noah was happy, but then he remembered his position.

"There is no chance that I'll get a better technique than this one?"

William shook his head.

"No chance at all."

"How do I know that my dantian is ready for the compression?"

"You won't be able to accumulate more "Breath" once you've reached its limits."

Noad nodded in understanding, a plan was forming in his mind.

'I can only wait till the peak of rank 1, then I have to go away from here. Not only my advancements will be halted if I decide to stay, but my mother is also nearing her limit of endurance.'

He looked again at his Master.

"How long does it takes to cultivate the dantian?"

William thought for a little and then answered.

"It took me twenty-five years to reach the gaseous stage of the rank 3 but that was caused by the limits that my body had. Don't worry too much about the time spent, a cultivator's lifespan gets longer as you advance in the dantian or in the body."

He misunderstood his disciple's intention but still gave the answer Noah wanted.

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"So what should I do now?"

William shook his head and showed a complex smile.

"The news of your dantian and element will astonish many inside the inner circle. You are, after all, a cultivator younger than fourteen and have one of the rarest elements. I won't be surprised if people will call you a prodigy."

Noah nodded at his Master's words.

"And this is a bad thing right?"

William answered.

"Yes, they had already tried to send you in a trap with the escort mission and I'm afraid that they will use more direct methods to hurt you from now on. Well, maybe the family will be divided when choosing which role you will have but it's better to be careful anyway. As always, don't spend too much time inside the mansion and take only missions about magical beasts. I will probe the situation in the meantime."

Noah stood up and bowed and then he exited the room.

William stood in the room for some time before he sighed.

'I'm sorry, your Master is really useless some times.'

Noah went to see his mother and explained the situation to her.

She didn't understand much about cultivation but when he said that he was possibly in danger because of his talent, she didn't hesitate in sending him away.

"If the mansion is not safe then just go away, don't care about me!"

These were the words she said and Noah could not help but steeling his determination as he exited the mansion.

He took the first mission he could find and went to the appointed place where the report said that the magical beasts were gathering.

The beasts were all rank 2, it took him less than five minutes to annihilate their pack.

'Rank 2 beasts can't really do anything now that my body advanced and the "Breath" in it is on the same level as the one in my dantian. It seems that the hardest part in cultivating the dantian is the "Breath" necessary to enlarge it, while only refilling it doesn't take that much time.'

He was experimenting with his new strength and was completely satisfied.

His dantian was still small but he could feel that its maximum capacity was way higher than the one of his body, and this without considering the stage he was in.

'There is really a great difference, if I didn't practice in the Forging of Seven Hells I'm afraid that I couldn't have lasted for more than five clashes against a real cultivator. Now my weakness is gone, I only have to cultivate and I will be able to fight for a long time.'

The advantages of having a dantian didn't stop at that, but Noah's body was too strong for him to feel any other positive change yet.

Noah decided to spend some nights outside the mansion to focus on his new organ, the missions were the perfect excuse for his absence.

Meanwhile, William was kneeling on the floor of a luxurious hall.

The hall was big, as large as an entire floor of the guards' building, and many paintings and colorful items were exposed on its walls.

In front of him, many spacious chairs were placed on top of short marble steps, making those that sat on them look down to whoever asked for their presence.

Thomas Balvan was seated on the central chair, carefully inspecting a black stone.

After some time, he lowered the stone and looked at the kneeling vice-captain.

"Are you saying that Rhys's bastard not only developed a dantian before the age of fourteen but that is also of the darkness element?"

William's answer was immediate and loud.

"Yes, Lord Patriarch, I was there myself when he did the test with the Pharos stone."

Thomas thought for a bit and then he nodded.

"I've decided, no one is allowed to do anything to that kid, let's see how he develops. Do you understand me, Rhys? I don't want to see another scheme done behind my back."

Rhys was seated in one of the chairs on Thomas's side and at his words, he stood up and bowed.

"I understand Father."

Thomas then waved casually his hand.

"The meeting is over, you can go."

At his words everyone stood up and bowed, returning to their tasks.

William was relieved at the Patriarch's words as he went back to the outer circle.

However, not everyone in the Balvan family was happy with the disposition.

In another room inside the inner circle.

CRASH!

A big and seemingly expensive table was crashed by Rhys' blow.

'Fuck, he is my son, I can do anything I want with him.'

He looked at the broken desk and focused his gaze on it.

The table burned and was reduced to ashes.

A bit of sweat appeared on Rhys' face which made him even angrier.

'Fuck, who does he thinks he is growing so fast. The son of that whore has to always, ALWAYS be weaker than the son and daughter that Rebecca gave me.'

He sat on a pillow on the floor to calm down.

Rhys Balvan was the weakest inside his family.

Since he had everything he wanted he never cared about training.

However, the descendants he made with his dead wife Rebecca had taken his carefree attitude and were unwilling to spend too much time cultivating.

Rhys had already given up on the idea of succeeding his Father since his two older brothers were way better candidates, yet he couldn't accept that his bastard son could become someone important in the family when his other ones couldn't.

He thought for a while before his eyes began to emit a cold light.

'I can't hurt you but I can make sure that you'll never be loyal to the family and then I'll just wait patiently for your mistake. I can't wait to see your sorry figure being chased by our personal guards.'

He stood up and yelled seemingly to no one.

"Wayne, I'm going to the outer circle, take care of my children."

A guard appeared from nowhere and half-kneeled on the flow.

"Yes, my Lord."

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Inside the guests' building, in Lily's room.

Lily was holding a small mirror checking her make-up.

She would do this action every time she felt that Rhys was coming.

'He will vent on me, he always does.'

Lily never had the chance to get instructed due to the fact that she came from a poor family.

However, her beauty was renowned, attracting even the attention of the nobles.

That was how she met Rhys and managed to live in the Balvan mansion.

From the commoners' perspective, she was blessed and she felt that too before Noah was born.

'To think that such happiness could turn into so much pain.'

She knew that her son was amazing.

She might not know anything about cultivation but she was sure that Noah would become someone important in the future.

'I still remember when he tried so hard to learn to walk. How could a baby have that kind of determination?'

She smiled when she remembered the scenes from his youth.

'You've worked so hard, and I know that you hide a lot of things from me. You are not even a man but you already want to protect me.'

She shook her head.

She knew that Noah cared for her, that he always checked her body every time they met.

She knew that part of his hardworking personality was because of her situation.

She then remembered the first night that Noah spent training in the Kesier rune, his pale face, his bloodshot eyes.

'How many nights did you end up like that? How many times did you end up worse than that? Jeez, what a reckless son I have.'

She moved the mirror to point at her right cheek, some bruises were still healing on that spot.

'I never told you that your father hits me to hurt you. Everything he does is for ruining your life, I'm just a tool for this goal and it seems that his methods are working.'

She sighed.

What she learnt most since she came to the mansion was Rhys' personality.

She could almost predict what his every action would be.

'Today you seemed really worried otherwise you wouldn't have told me. That means that Rhys' response will be harder. Don't worry though, I might be useless as a mother but I finally have the courage to stop being your burden.'

She threw the mirror on the floor, smashing it.

Then she picked two sharp shards and hid them in her sleeves.

'I hope you will understand and, in time, forgive me.'

Then her eyes became resolute as she waited on the bed for her lover to come.

Rhys didn't make her wait much and arrived in her room only a few hours later.

As he went inside, he noticed that something was wrong with Lily's expression but then he remembered his plan and put a smile on his face.

Before he could speak though, Lily took the initiative.

"Have you come to kill me?"

They have been together for a long time, Rhys knew that Lily wasn't just a stupid woman.

"Kill you? Not at all, you probably don't know but it would be against the direct order of my Father to do that. Our son has become quite a celebrity already."

She raised her head to look right in Rhys' eyes.

"What will you do then?"

Rhys put a complacent smile and answered.

"Well, everyone knows about the treatment that I reserve you. I was just thinking that I might as well leave some permanent sign this time. I might have lost the chance to kill you but that doesn't mean that I can't increase the hate he already has for the family.'

Lily smiled at his words.

'If he hates him this much it means that my son really is extraordinary.'

"So, what were you thinking of doing."

Rhys put a pensive pose and then casually answered.

"I was thinking if I were to disfigure your face, wouldn't his hate for the family increase every time he looked at you? The lofty Patriarch sure wouldn't intervene personally for a few cuts on a whore's face.'

Lily continued to smile and stood up with her hands behind her back.

Then, she went close to Rhys with a bewitching expression and put her arms around his neck.

"Don't you want to enjoy my face one last time before you do that?"

Rhys excitement grew and he held the woman tightly by her waist, putting her close to his groin.

"You sure are a whore, eheh."

He was about to kiss her when Lily took out one of the mirror-shards from her sleeve and stabbed it in Rhys' left eye.

Rhys instinctively flung her away at full strength and she slammed in the wall of the room and then fell on the floor.

Rhys was weak but still a cultivator, his blow broke some of Lily's ribs.

He began to yell madly at Lily's figure on the ground.

"You mad woman! Now nothing can save you, not even the Patriarch! I will slowly torture you and make sure that your bastard son watches as I do it!"

Blood flowed from his eye socket, the shard had pierced him deeply, he wasn't sure that the injury was curable.

However, Lily had already held her other hidden shard and stabbed it on her throat.

She showed a bright smile as life left her and was happy to know that her plan had succeeded.

'Now he won't have any hold on you, my dear son, and you will think that your mother was just a weak woman. I hope that like this you will grow strong in the Balvan family and you won't do anything reckless. Be safe my dear.'

Then she died.

Rhys was still yelling and was about to near Lily's corpse when a suffocating pressure engulfed the room.

"You idiot son, are my orders only farts in your ears?"

Thomas Balvan appeared in the room and stopped Rhys from taking any other step.

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Rhys was covering the wound on his eye and turned around to look at his father.

Thomas had a disappointed expression on his face as he looked at his son.

"Not only you disobeyed me, you even let a common woman hurt you. As a cultivator, you really are a failure."

Rhys began to complain.

"But Father, that whore attacked me f-"

He could not continue to speak as more pressure was applied by Thomas.

If he didn't want his son to speak, then Rhys could not speak.

"Tell me, what makes a family a noble one?"

Rhys had been educated for years so he knew what his father wanted to say.

He lowered his head and answered with a soft voice.

"Strength."

Thomas nodded.

"Correct. Your brothers understood that and worked hard to become strong. They even forced their children to train in order to maintain the power of the family. You instead..."

He shook his head and continued.

"You spoiled your descendants too much but that was fine, you weren't actually hurting the family. Now, however, you made us lose the only tie we had with a promising cultivator."

At his words, Rhys became angry again, he really could not bear seeing his bastard son being praised.

He had to hold his feelings back though, and he bowed slightly while asking a question.

"What do you want me to do?"

Thomas massaged his temples and sighed.

"I might be able to heal your eye, but I won't. The kid needs a proof that you were punished. As for the other arrangements, I will take care of them myself. Furthermore, no one is allowed to touch anything on this floor, let my grandson decide how to interpret the situation."

Noah didn't know anything about what happened in the mansion and continued to train and fight.

A week had passed since he went out and he finally felt accustomed to his new strength.

His dantian had enlarged a little but he felt that it was too soon for it to show its power.

There was one thing that bothered him though.

'I want to change my blood companion already!'

Now his body was on the same level as Assea, but that wasn't the limit of the technique.

If he could find a peak rank 3 magical beast of the darkness element, his battle capability will rise by a lot.

'Sadly I don't really know where to find one. It's not like rank 3 magical beasts are easy to find.'

He hid the space-ring in his clothes, he would always wear it whenever he went outside after the events in the valley.

'Time to go back.'

As he neared the mansion, he saw that the patrolling guards were avoiding his gaze.

An ominous feeling began to form inside Noah that reached its peak when he saw William waiting for him at the main gate.

Noah hurriedly went toward him and asked:

"What happened?"

William shook his head and answered.

"You can judge it by yourself. The Patriarch didn't allow anyone to modify the scene."

There were guards in red armor in front of the guests' building and they opened a way for Noah and his Master.

Noah sped up and reached the first floor in an instant.

When he saw the scene that was displayed, he felt completely void of any strength.

His mother's corpse was on the ground, her throat was sliced and a mirror-shard was in it.

He was about to rage and ask something when he saw the smile on her face.

He neared the corpse uncaring of the awful smell that it was exuding due to its decomposition and kneeled in front of it.

William began to talk at that moment.

"She met with your father one week ago. According to the report, she stabbed his eye and then sliced her throat. To show his condolences, the Patriarch had forbidden Lord Rhys from healing the wound that she caused."

Noah didn't pay much attention to his words and gently caressed his mother's face.

'You did it for me, didn't you?'

Noah wasn't a common thirteen years old kid.

After he saw her smile he immediately understood his mother's intentions.

'Why? You just had to wait a bit more and then I would have taken you out of this place. I was so close too.'

He placed his front on hers and closed his eyes to memorize every detail of her face with his mental energy.

'I understand, I will not do anything reckless for now.'

Noah stood up, his heart grew cold, his mind released a bit of pressure as he vowed to himself:

'Yet one day, I'll definitely kill my father.'

The more he stared at his mother's corpse the more his mind became sharp.

Some cracking sound came from the furniture around him as he was losing control of his state of mind.

William noted this and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Then he neared his mouth to his disciple's ear and whispered softly.

"You will have to control yourself from now on, remember to never fall for any provocation. They will suppress you but secretly you will always be ahead of them. Endure it, your time will definitely come."

He slipped a piece of paper in his clothes.

When Noah turned to look at his Master with a confused expression a guard in red armor arrived at their position.

William bowed lightly at his sight and gestured for Noah to do the same.

Noah was still confused but trusted his Master so he followed his example.

The guard nodded and put a stern expression before he spoke.

"Per order of the Patriarch of the Balvan family, Noah Balvan has to be immediately transferred to the inner circle to join the personal guards of the family. Please follow me to your new lodging."

William looked at Noah and smiled slightly.

He ruffled his hair a bit and spoke in a warm tone.

"Go, and remember to be careful."

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Thomas Balvan had three sons: Adrian, Evan, and Rhys.

His wife was a noblewoman of a small-size noble family who died giving birth to Rhys.

Adrian Balvan was his first son and the second in command of the family.

He was in charge of the military power of the family and was married to Gillian Lansay, from which derived the friendly relationship with her family.

He had only one son, named Keith, who he trained to be his successor as the head of the Balvan army.

Evan Balvan was in charge of the economic aspect of the family.

He managed to marry the daughter of one of the nobles in the Shosti family, her name was Sibyl Shosti, and from her came most of the financial support of the Balvan family.

He had two sons and two daughters named respectively Maxwell, Neil, Valerie, and Lena.

Neil and Lena were about the same age as Noah while the other two had more than twenty years.

Rhys was in charge of the management of the mansion but he rarely bothered to do that, leaving all his duties to his trusted guard Wayne.

He had a son and a daughter, Fabian and Rose, with Rose being the oldest.

Each of Thomas' sons had a group of personal guards always attending them.

Noah had been assigned to Evan Balvan as a guard and he ordered him to attend his younger children.

His days were spent escorting Neil and Lena around and satisfying every request they had.

His position as a guard of the inner circle granted him access to many manuals and body-refinement methods of rank 3, but he already had those.

For rank 4 ones, he needed to accumulate more merits and obtain a more prestigious position.

As for better cultivation techniques, the family would always refuse his request which made Noah understand their intentions.

'They want to slow my growth.'

Even if he was granted access to the inner circle, the family still hadn't recognized him as a true descendant, so they had to suppress him.

They could not allow for an outsider to be stronger than the actual family members.

In their view, Noah was still young, losing a few years of training to ascertain his personality was totally worth it.

However, from Noah's perspective, it was just a way to prolong his torture.

The Patriarch had declared to let him outside of schemes but he could not control the behavior of every family member, especially of the youngest ones.

Every true descendant would feel a sense of superiority toward a bastard, especially since they were used to their noble title since birth.

Neil and Lena were no exception and would always try to get a reaction in their new young guard.

A few months after his enrollment, Noah was already used to their daily abuse.

"Hey cousin, I knew that your mother was good at taking hits, you surely inherited that from her."

Neil said that looking at the bleeding youth in front of him.

"No, she wasn't that good at that. She decided to kill herself because of that remember?"

Lena answered her brother with a bit of sweat running down her forehead.

Noah was shirtless in front of them with a small cut on his chest.

Since he had a rank 3 body, he could be used by the members of the family as a test dummy for their weaker spells.

Almost all the guards in the inner circle had a body that strong but the brother and sister always chose him for practice.

"Then it's just because of his body, right? I can't wait to reach rank 3 too so I might spar with him a little."

A mischievous smile was on the face of the young man when he said those words.

"That is because you always waste time playing around. You have the same age as him but you never train. Do you want shame on our family by letting a bastard be stronger than you?"

The sister answered while she focused again and a small water bullet shot out to hit Noah.

Noah took the hit without moving, the bullet penetrated his skin to be stopped by the muscles below it.

Only a cold expression could be seen on his face.

Lena nodded seeing the blood coming out of his chest and smile happily.

"Mh that will do, my control of the spell is really growing. You can go now cousin, I'm already sick of your face."

They didn't even look at him while he put back his red armor, bowed, and moved toward his lodging.

When he was back in his room, he took away his armor and threw it on the floor.

'All the fucking day doing the punching dummy for those fucking spoiled kids. What control is growing? I could kill that bitch with one thought!'

Neil and Lena would spend every day with him so he could not train or fight.

Adding the constant mocking, Noah irritation grew day after day.

He sat on the floor and took out a folded sheet from the space-ring that pinned on the wall in front of him.

He began to meditate in the rank 1 cultivation technique with his eyes closed.

The "Breath" began to enter his dantian and slowly enlarge it.

Then, strands of "Breath" from his body moved toward his low waist and joined the one gathered from the technique.

Most of it was unable to mix with the one of the technique and dispersed but a small part still blended and entered the dantian.

Since the quality of the "Breath" in his body was the same as the dantian, Noah discovered that he could use it during the absorption process.

However, only the one belonging to the darkness element could enter the dantian, while the other part was dispersed.

Nevertheless, it was still an increase in cultivation speed and Noah didn't hesitate to constantly use this method since the "Breath" in his body was refilled autonomously.

Then, he opened his eyes to look at the sheet on the wall, an intricate rune was written on it.

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William had secretly given him the second Kesier rune right before the guard from the inner circle took him away.

The piece of paper he slipped inside his clothes was precisely that.

Noah continued to cultivate while he stared at the rune on the wall.

Immense pressure was applied from inside his sea of consciousness, making the waves continuously crash on the mental sphere, enlarging it.

Since he was cultivating and looking at the rune at the same time, his mental energy was expended at a higher speed and he had to stop staring at the rune after just one hour.

Then, he spent the rest of the night focusing on enlarging the dantian and only when the first light of the day showed up he stopped and laid on the bed.

'Even by sleeping only every two days my training is slower compared to when I was in the outer circle.'

He thought of Lena and her water bullets.

'She has no special talent and yet she managed to become a rank 1 mage at the age of seventeen. The advantage given by all the potions and pills can overcome any gifted individual.'

He thought of his situation.

'I can train harder in the second rune, but that will give me no immediate increase in strength. On the other side, reaching the liquid stage can boost both my martial art and my body.'

That was the solution he found during his months there.

He would focus more on the cultivation technique since he could not obtain anything else.

'However, the more time I spend here the more I will lose my initial advantage. I must find a way to escape soon.'

His escape was something set in stone in his mind.

Now that his mother was dead he really had no more reasons to hesitate.

'I must be ready at any time. The academy surely isn't waiting for me to knock at its doors.'

Time passed but there were no changes to his daily routine.

Every dawn he would wake up and attend the siblings and after a full day enduring their treatment, he would go back to his room to train all night.

His complexion became paler as he began to sleep only every three days to increase the time spent in training.

Cultivating was refreshing but it couldn't replace sleep, he was relying on the vitality of his rank 3 body to keep up with his schedule.

Sometimes Rhys would show up and look at him from the distance.

He had a smug smile every time he looked at his bastard son being used as a training dummy for Lena's spells but the bandage on his left eye made his figure less lofty.

Noah continued to endure and only showed a cold face to anyone while his mental sphere became sturdier and sturdier with the passage of time.

The external experiences could reinforce one's state of mind and in that environment, Noah's mind was becoming extremely tough.

He could not accumulate merits since his duties were merely inside the mansion, so he waited patiently for the right moment to come.

A few weeks after he became fifteen, that moment came.

It was dawn and Noah was about to leave his room when someone knocked at his door.

Noah opened it and found the head of Evan's personal guards standing in front of him.

Since he was his direct superior, Noah bowed and made a respectful greeting.

"Good morning, captain Logan."

Logan nodded at his etiquette and handed him a few papers.

Noah took them and gave a short look at the title on the first page.

'Shosti's inheritance ground.'

Logan explained.

"A month from now, the Shosti family will open the inheritance ground to all the families in its domain. Since you have the required age and strength, you have been selected to be one of the guards accompanying the descendants in this event. All the relevant knowledge about the event is in those sheets and you'll be free of your duties in the period time till its opening to prepare for the task. Remember to bring honor to the Balvan family."

Noah felt that Logan's speech was over so he bowed again to his departure and then closed the door of his room.

His eyes became dark as he sat on the floor to read the contents of the sheets.

'Finally an opportunity!'

'The Shosti's inheritance ground is a separate dimension supposedly left behind by a powerful cultivator. It is said that what made the Shosti family a large-size noble one was the discovery of this place. However, it is required an age below twenty years to explore it so the Shosti's had no other options but to involve the other noble families in its exploration. They will then offer huge rewards to any family whose descendant manages to obtain something from it in exchange for what they had gained. The dimension will open every twenty years, so each descendant has only one attempt in retrieving something from it.'

Noah had to stop reading to sort the first line of text in his mind.

'Separate dimension? How does it work? Even in my previous world humans didn't achieve in such a task!'

Then his focus moved to the age requirements.

'This powerful cultivator, was he looking for an heir? Also, the Shosti family's move to open it to every other noble is smart, they can accumulate prizes while improving their image to those they govern.'

The sheet then listed the known rewards that had been retrieved since the first opening.

'Mostly cultivation resources of high quality, but there are also magical weapons, high-rank techniques, and powerful spells.'

Noah was astonished.

'How powerful the cultivator that set it up has been to accumulate all this wealth?'

As he kept reading, a smile appeared on his face and his eyes became colder.

'I can do it, this is the perfect chance to escape even if I obtain nothing from it. It is time to use the Earth pill in my space-ring.'

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The Earth pill had the ability to help a cultivator breaking through the stages of the dantian.

However, that would still require the user to have reached the peak of that stage.

'Even though I could only train at night, with the help of the "Breath" inside my body I'm already close to the limits of the gaseous stage. Now that I'm finally free to train at will I can definitely reach it one week!'

Noah focused only on the cultivation technique for eight days straight, he didn't sleep at all during this period and only stopped his meditation to eat.

On the night of the eighth day, he finally could not enlarge his dantian anymore.

'Peak of the gaseous stage!'

He then fell asleep on the floor as he had no strength left due to his intensive training.

It took him one year and a half to reach this stage and he had to focus only on the cultivation technique to achieve that feat.

The "Breath" inside his body also helped a lot in the process as it assisted in overcoming the weaknesses of his rank 1 technique.

If he could not have a technique that fitted his element, he would just use more "Breath"!

Sadly, this method only gave him some relevant advantages in the gaseous stage since the "Breath" in his body was in that same form.

He woke up after a whole day of sleep, in the night of the ninth day.

He ate to make sure that he was in top condition and then took a small box from his space-ring.

Inside the box, there was the Earth pill that he took from the Gray Shadows.

He held the pill in his hand and put back the box in the ring.

'Time to start.'

He ate the pill and directly gulped it, then he closed his eyes to concentrate on his dantian.

The pill was absorbed by his body and created a sphere around his dantian that began to compress on its own!

Noah aided the process controlling the "Breath" inside it to not oppose the condensation.

The "Breath" though seemed unwilling to contract and tried to resist the pushing force.

However, at that point the sphere pushed with more strength, forcing the "Breath" to amass in the restricting space.

Noah gave up on forcing the "Breath" to stay still and just controlled the dantian to help the sphere advance.

The dantian became smaller and smaller and the "Breath" inside it seemed to grow unstable.

Then another push from the sphere forced the dantian to the size of a small circular nail.

The gaseous "Breath" agitated more but the sphere was unmoving so the walls of the dantian stood still and resisted the internal pressure.

After a few minutes in that state, the "Breath" began to change form and from all that compressed gas, only a drop of black "Breath" came out.

The sphere dissipated and Noah opened his eyes and pointed with his arms on the floor to prevent himself from falling.

His breathing was rough and his face was pale, sweat continued to pour from his orifices.

'That was incredibly tiring!'

The process seemed smooth but a quarter of his mental energy was expended to assist the effects of the Earth pill.

'Am I supposed to force the compression simply with my mental energy if I don't find another pill?'

He calmed himself and resumed a normal pace of breathing while in his mind he was analyzing the process he just went through.

'This is so strange, it's like the "Breath" didn't want to be compressed. Does that mean that Heaven and Earth don't want cultivators to become strong? I've read that cultivation is innately an act of defiance against the will of the world but to think that it could affect even the "Breath" in my dantian.'

He inspected his now small dantian and the new "Breath" inside it.

The black drop seemed to contain a tremendous energy, way more than all the gaseous "Breath" in his body.

'It makes sense. After all, this drop is the result of the condensation of all the "Breath" that was in my dantian which was already three times the one in my body.'

It was still deep in the night and he had no need to sleep so he chose to cultivate.

He used the same absorption method with the help of the "Breath" in his body but the results were disappointing.

He stopped meditating at midday but his dantian had enlarged only by a little bit.

'This is incredibly slow! It would take me three to five years to reach the same size as yesterday and that's only if I can train freely. I really need a better cultivation technique.'

He was eager to escape but suppressed that feeling and unsheathed his sabers.

He practiced his forms like he used to do back in his room in the guests' building and he could not help but spread a cold pressure around him when the memories of his life there emerged.

'Soon dear nobles, I will come for you soon.'

When he felt that his attacks had regained its previous apex, it was already deep in the night.

'I have around twenty days of closed training to get used to my new stage and enlarge my dantian as much as possible. Since going out of the mansion is impossible I only have one method.'

He took out his upper clothes and thought of a name that he didn't use for a long time.

'Assea.'

A big head of a snake came out of his body.

Noah wore his space-ring and put all the items in his room inside it, the empty room was about ten square meters.

'Spar with me, don't touch the walls.'

His blood companion didn't hesitate and charged at him but was met with a black wind slash that almost cut it in half from head to tail.

A sharp pain hit Noah due to the damage to Assea but he didn't care and dodged the assault of the snake that had already healed.

He spent the days before the opening of the inheritance ground fighting with his own companion and cultivating, giving a look at the second rune in the spare time.

Sometimes metal sounds would reverberate from his room but since he was appointed for such an important mission, no one dared to interrupt him.

In the end, his month of isolation ended and the inheritance ground opened.

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Three luxurious carriages moved in the direction of Mossgrove city surrounded by thirty or so guards in red armor.

The red emblem of the Balvan family was drawn on the sides of the carriages giving them some traces of solemnity.

Noah was on foot among the guards, his eyes were focused as he studied carefully the composition of the caravan.

'Twenty guards are below twenty years of age, so they will enter the inheritance ground, the other ten are all elites that will stand on the entrance. I feel the same sense of danger I felt with Kevin when I inspect them, they must be on his same level or a bit lower than that. In conclusion, I must avoid those ten.'

His focus shifted to the twenty young guards.

'They should all be rank 1 cultivators around my level, with Assea on my side I'm sure to win against each one of them but together they are a problem. There is also the issue of the appointed captain.'

The appointed captain for the mission in the inheritance ground was a nineteen years old man with short black hair and a big figure.

His name was Trevor and he was the son of one of the elite guards in the inner circle.

His position was quite privileged between the guards due to his father's position and his loyalty to the family was unquestioned so he received a better treatment than Noah.

'I'm sure that I can beat him if he doesn't have a spell, but if he does...'

Then Noah's attention went to the three carriages.

'Neil, Lena, and Fabian occupy each one carriage and will enter the inheritance ground. Neil and Fabian are not strong but I have to be careful about some special items that the family could have given them. As for Lena...'

Lena was nearing the age of nineteen and with all the nurturing from the family and her constant training on Noah, her strength had become something that Noah had to be careful of.

'Summarizing: the ten elite guards are to avoid at all cost; Trevor and Lena are to fight only if necessary; the others are to fight two at the time at most and I have to be careful of the precautions the family gave on their descendants.'

Noah sorted everything in his mind while continuing his march with the other soldiers.

'It would be easier to plan things if the inheritance ground wasn't so unpredictable though.'

The inheritance ground was divided into two stages.

The first one was fixed and it was a barren land full of magical beasts.

Each group had to defeat a pack of beasts and kill their leader to obtain the coordinates of the entrance for the second stage.

Each ingress led to a trial different from the others.

During the many attempts to explore the separate dimension, the types of trials that were recorded were countless.

'Retrieving of an item in a dangerous zone, escaping from a threat under a time limit, solo fights against puppets, tournament against a different family. How can a human set something so massive?'

Noah reviewed the information on the separate dimension and felt amazed.

'My knowledge of the cultivation world is only about fighting styles, for things like formations and similar I'm really ignorant.'

His resolve to escape increased even more.

'That's why I have to reach the academy, my foundation will only stagnate in the Balvan family.'

The caravan continued on its road until they reached the external walls of Mossgrove city.

There a banner with the emblem of the Shosti family was planted on the ground and was fluttering in the air.

As per their tradition, the Shosti family would gather all the medium and small size noble families and then lead them to the entrance.

The Balvan family was one of the first to reach the gathering point with only a couple of other small caravans waiting there.

When they arrived, one of the elite guards gestured to the group to rest in order to wait for everyone to gather.

Noah saw many caravans arrive with colorful emblems on their carriages and had a better understanding of the effective power of a large-size noble family.

He saw the familiar emblems of the Merger and Lansay families, but on the latter, there were no signs of Kevin or Basil.

'I guess they really died back then.'

He slightly shook his head.

He didn't care about Basil, but he remembered the transformation that Kevin went through when he used his full strength.

'He was so strong and yet he died against a couple of mages. If I really want to kill Rhys, how powerful do I have to be?'

He didn't know the precise answer to that question but he knew that it would take a long time to reach that level.

When fifteen or so caravans gathered under the banner, a figure jumped down from the walls of the city and lightly landed on the top of the banner's staff.

Many young guards opened their mouth in surprise seeing how gracefully she managed to alight from a fall of over twenty meters.

"I am Virginia Shosti and it's my duty to accompany you all on the inheritance ground of my family.

As you all are aware, my family's descendants have already attempted in the task in the previous days so they won't greet you. I hope that my presence is enough to represent my family in front of you all."

Virginia Shosti was one of the most beautiful women that Noah had ever seen.

She was around 20 years old, with golden hair and shining green eyes.

Her figure was graceful with small curves tightened by a luxurious white dress.

She lightly bowed in sign of respect to the group below her while all the soldiers and descendants bowed almost to ninety degrees to symbolize submission.

Virginia nodded at that sight and showed a brilliant smile that mesmerized everyone that saw it.

"Since everyone is here, we can move. Follow me, we will arrive at the ingress in half a day."

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The group of caravans moved following Virginia's lead.

Initially, the soldiers on foot gave each other some hateful look, but then they were mesmerized by Virginia's figure walking ahead of them.

Noah had his eyes fixed on her too but for a different reason than the others.

'I really can't understand how strong she is.'

No matter how hard he inspected her, he couldn't get a clear perception of her level.

She seemed to be submerged in some invisible membrane that negated the mental energy coming at her.

'Is she too powerful for me to investigate her? Or it is just a method of the Shosti family to protect themselves?'

Of course, he wasn't going all out with his mental energy for fear of being discovered from the other party.

After half a day of travel, they arrived at a desolate yard surrounded by guards in white armors.

The white guards bowed seeing Virginia coming and opened a passage for the caravans to enter the yard.

The caravans arranged themselves in a casual manner and all the descendants jumped off of them joining their respective groups of guards.

Virginia neared the end of the yard and took out a shiny gem from seemingly nowhere.

The youngest guards were surprised but Noah knew what had happened.

'Space-ring!'

However, what came after that shocked even him.

The report had described briefly the event of the opening of the separate dimension but many times words could not express the true beauty of something.

Virginia placed the gem on the ground and immediately a vast amount of runes lighted up on the terrain.

The yard that was more than two hundred meters square became completely covered in dazzling orange runes.

The runes then gathered their brilliance on the gem in the ground that shot out a vertical ray of orange light in the air that stopped at five meters of height.

The ray stood still for a moment before it began to enlarge forming a rectangular orange figure.

A door made of light was created!

Everyone was so stunned by the scene that they almost didn't hear Virginia's next words.

"The gate is open. I will call the name of a family and their group will enter. The order is decided based on the contributions given to the Shosti family in the past twenty years."

Being called as first not only gave the family an advantage in choosing an easier beasts pack to attack, it was also a sign of honor in the social environment of the noble families.

According to the tests made in the previous years, most of the second stages gave additional rewards if the time spent in the separate dimension was lower than a certain average.

"Sawler family, come forth."

Virginia announced and a group of men and women dressed in blue neared the door made of light.

Then their appointed captain moved and touched the light disappearing in an instant.

The guards and descendants behind him followed and they too disappeared leaving no trace of their presence.

'This is basically teleportation!'

Noah had his mouth opened since the rune appeared.

'To think that by using the "Breath" the humans of this world achieved something only theoretic in my previous one.'

"Next, Noorge family."

This time it was a group donning black armors that went forth and entered the inheritance ground.

"Balvan family."

Noah came back to reality after hearing the name of his family.

Trevor took the lead of the group in red and moved toward the door followed by the other guards and descendants.

When they were in front of the door Noah could feel the pressure of all the "Breath" that was used to keep the entrance opened.

'The report said that the consumption of "Breath" was immense but to think that it was actually so much. No wonder in the week the inheritance ground is open we get only one chance to enter, the cost is way too high.'

The gem that Virginia used was a concentrate of "Breath" of great value.

Since the trials inside the separate dimension were hard and dangerous, a group had generally to rest for more than one week after one attempt, but by then the gate would be closed for another twenty years.

That's why the Shosti family chose to use two of those gems every twenty years, one for their family and one for those under their command, in order to increase the chance of obtaining something more valuable than simple wealth.

Spells, magical weapons, and techniques had immense value and helped to increase the foundation of a family, what was money compared to a solid foundation?

Trevor couldn't waste much energy from the gem and trespassed the edge made of light.

The others followed.

When Noah touched the door, he felt his vision spinning and a huge pressure was applied to his sea of consciousness.

With the toughness of his sphere though, he only had to close his eyes for a moment to resist the force before opening them again.

What he saw then was an immense grassland.

His eyes were filled with the green color and the horizon seemed to have no end.

He looked above him and saw that the sky had become orange, with no sun or stars in it.

The concentration of "Breath" was a little higher than on the outside but it was barely noticeable.

'So this is a separate dimension, if not for the sky and the fact that I can't see anything but plains in every direction I would swear that I was still in the outside world.'

He was still looking around him when he felt a gaze fixed on him.

Noah turned to look in that direction and saw Trevor staring at him with wide eyes.

Noah was confused but then he noticed that all the members in his group had still his eyes closed to resist the pressure of the teleportation.

The next to open her eyes was Lena and when she saw the look on Trevor's eyes she understood that Noah was the first to recover and joined the appointed captain in his surprised stare to Noah.

'As if I didn't have enough problems already.'

Noah thought, answering to their gazes with his usual cold one.

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Noah's mind had reached unimaginable levels of toughness for a fifteen years old man.

His transmigration, his mother's suffering, the bullying, the treatment of the Seven Hells, the pressure of a sleeping rank 5 beast, all these experiences piled up gave him a firm and sturdy mental sphere.

It wasn't surprising that he surpassed everyone there in that field.

The exchange of stares continued for a few seconds before the rest of their group recovered and opened their eyes.

Noah moved his gaze away and went toward the edge of the troop unsheathing his sabers.

He still felt the two different pairs of eyes on his back while he acted like he was inspecting the surrounding area.

Trevor then gave up on analyzing him and spoke with a loud voice.

"We better begin to search for a beast pack. My lords and lady, I advise you to stay in the middle of our formation."

Lena snorted giving another look in Noah's direction and then positioned right behind Trevor, while Fabian and Neil went obediently at the center of the composition.

The formation was set so Trevor chose a random direction and gestured to the others to follow.

Their pace was not fast but neither slow like the one they used while marching, Trevor was directing their speed so that they did not waste too much energy in the exploration.

However, even after a few hours of research, the only thing they saw was the endless grassland.

Trevor gestured to stop and gathered the descendants to speak.

Noah could vaguely guess the topic they were discussing.

'He is asking if there is some hidden information about this place.'

The report said clearly that this dimension was full of magical beasts so it was strange that they hadn't met any pack in all this time.

The only option was that there was some secret intelligence that the family didn't disclose with the guards.

However, even the descendants seemed clueless about that situation.

While they waited, small black figures became visible in the distance.

The group from the Balvan family became a bit excited at their sight but were disappointed when they discovered that the black figures were just the soldiers of the Noorge family running in their direction.

The man in their lead separated from his group and yelled toward Trevor.

"Nothing on your side?"

Trevor just shook his head in response which made the appointed captain from the Noorge family curse a little.

Noah continued to look at his surroundings when he felt a slight tremor in the terrain.

He tried to inspect the area below him but the dimension was made of "Breath" so there was a strong interference when he used his mental energy to investigate.

Noah decided to kneel on the ground to place his ear on it.

The two appointed captains noticed his behavior and their eyes lit up as they began to stare carefully at the terrain.

Noah heard some crawling sounds coming from the ground.

The noise was moving and it was nearing their position.

There was a moment of silence underground when the sound arrived right below him only to start again nearing at a speed much higher than before.

Noah was almost caught by surprise and pressed with his four limbs on the terrain to jump at more than two meters of height.

Meanwhile, a sharp nail had pierced the ground and moved in his direction.

Noah crossed his sabers in front of him and clashed mid-air with the gray fang.

CLANG!

The blow pushed Noah more in the air and he made a backflip to land inside his group.

His eyes were still fixed on the blade that came from the ground while in his mind he judged calmly the strength of the attack.

'Rank 3.'

The young guards were about to panic when Tremor's roar made them come back in formation.

"Rabid moles! Set the formation, protect the nobles!"

The Rabid moles were a type of magical beasts that lived underground.

They used their extensible fangs to create underground lairs and to take their enemies by surprise.

As soon as Trevor yelled, more fangs sprouted from the terrain, injuring the soldiers in the Balvan's group.

The soldiers of the Noorge family stared with greedy eyes at the magical beasts that were crawling out of the terrain and moved to join the other group.

The first to kill the pack and their leader would enter the second stage before the other!

Trevor yelled orders relentlessly.

"Fight back, don't let them get you unprepared! Find the leader! We must secure the coordinates!"

The soldiers chosen for this mission were young, but they were still the strongest among those below twenty years.

After the first moment of surprise, they began to attack the beasts in brown fur that came out of the ground.

Noah had already jumped toward the rank 3 that attacked him and numerous clashes happened between him and the beast.

Noah maintained his cold face but internally he was ecstatic.

'Finally a battle! I've had enough of that confinement!'

His battle prowess had increased since the last time he fought.

The effects of the liquid stage were showed clearly in the might of his blows.

Noah attacked relentlessly, having solved the disadvantage of having a small amount of "Breath" available he was fighting at full strength with no reserves.

After more than twenty clashes, Noah sent a black wind slash toward the mole.

The magical beast tried to block the attack with its fangs but they were broken by the blow.

In just a few impacts, the weapons of a rank 3 magical beast could not endure any more the black sabers of the young man.

The slash hit the beast's body and cut deeply into it, yet no blood came out of the wound.

The Rabid mole screamed in pain and was about to charge ahead when Noah appeared at its side and severed its defenseless head.

The body of the beast fell on the ground and then turned into smoke that dissipated in the separate dimension.

'I see, so they are just a creation of this world. The more I learn about this place the more it surprises me.'

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The soldiers from the Noorge family arrived and joined the battle.

The soldiers from the Balvan group separated into two troops, one attacking the moles and one defending Fabian and Neil.

Lena was right beside Trevor sending water bullets on the beast in front of her.

The two families didn't fight each other but chose to kill as many magical beasts they could before the leader of the pack was found.

It was momentarily useless to start a battle between themselves and there was some hesitation on both sides in attacking the soldiers of another family.

After all, the people here were the most prominent figures in the younger generation of the families, killing some of them might lead to future frictions between their noble houses.

Therefore, unless it was absolutely necessary like in the case of the appearance of the leader of the beasts, they would rather focus on increasing the kill count to have better chances to obtain the coordinates of the second stage than fight each other.

Noah didn't know the specifics of the method to receive the coordinates but the report said that it depended on the number of beasts killed in the case a pack was divided between two different groups, so he decided to storm the area.

'I believe they already know that I have plenty of battle experience so going all out should not be a problem. The important thing is to keep Assea hidden.'

He surely could have held back but the truth was that he didn't care enough to do so.

In the last year and a half, he had to endure the constant mocking of the siblings while mourning his mother's death, all he wanted to do was to vent and these fake beasts were the perfect targets for his anger.

Noah ran freely in the pack of moles that kept on coming out from the ground, their number had already surpassed the fifty specimens!

However, most of them were simple rank 2 beasts with few of them being rank 3.

Noah ran from rank 3 to rank 3 killing every other weaker beast on his road with a single attack.

The guards protecting the descendants stared with their mouths open at the kid running carelessly among the pack.

Every rank 2 beast that he passed would find its body divided into two pieces and when he finally reached a rank 3, he would unleash a torrent of black wind slashes until its defenses were destroyed.

Even Fabian and Neil stared astonishedly as he killed the third rank 3 magical beast without even sweating.

Lena and Trevor were definitely doing their part having taken down six rank 3 beasts, but they were working together and had the backup of the other soldiers around them.

Lena gave a look to Noah and had to admit that his battle experience far surpassed hers.

'Why does he seems so unsatisfied though?'

Noah was relentless, he never stopped for a second in his search for better opponents.

'I've seen a man fight a dragon! I survived the snores of a rank 5 beast! You are too weak!'

He was venting all his accumulated irritation to the pack looking for a battle that could satisfy him.

It had to be said that his martial art was perfect for dealing with large groups of enemies of low level, his attacks were fast and precise, and the rank 3 beasts had only the strength of the initial stage so they weren't that much of a threat.

The soldiers from the Noorge family were losing their morale.

They could keep up with Trevor and Lena killing speed but with Noah's presence, they were falling behind in the number of beasts vanquished.

At that point though, a crater opened in the terrain and four big moles came out of it.

Their brown fur seemed more shining compared to the others and they were bigger.

The size of the other moles was lower than one and a half meter but the height of the newcomers surpassed two meters.

Everyone on the battlefield understood that the leader was among those four beasts.

The Noorge group didn't hesitate and rushed toward them, followed by Lena and Trevor that signaled to the guards around them to follow.

Noah too saw the new beasts but he was still in the middle of the enemy pack.

He attempted to create a path toward the stronger beasts but was stopped by two rank 3 moles that blocked his path.

No matter how hard he tried to avoid or pass through them, they stood still and hindered his movements.

Meanwhile, the other rank 2 were surrounding him from all the sides.

The strange thing was that their actions seemed intentional and aimed to prevent him to join the fight against their leader.

'Aren't these just creations of this world? How could they keep their instinct to protect their boss and even try to set a formation?'

He deflected the incoming strikes and thought of a plan to escape the encirclement.

The blows were stronger than before and for the first time, he became wary of the rank 2 beasts.

'Did their power increase? How is it possible? Wait, don't tell me...'

He deflected again and pierced two rank 2 moles with his sabers while retreating.

'This is a test, right? So the appearance of the leader must have triggered something in their patterns. It should be a signal that the first stage reached its climax, at least for us.'

He pondered for a long time still immersed in the pack.

'A test should have points to evaluate its participants, so let's say that each beast killed gives to a group some points since it's the only variable here. I can't reach the leader any time soon anyway so I should focus on dealing with the pack, maybe we can get the coordinates through quantity rather than quality.'

There were around forty empowered moles around him of both rank 2 and rank 3.

'Anyhow, losing the early ingress on the second stage doesn't concern me. My objective is to find a way to escape, not to fight for some random inheritance.'

Dealing with the pack gave him also more chances to hide Assea as he was sure that he would not need it if he was careful.

As he decided in his mind his next course of action he didn't waste time anymore.

He took a deep breath and slashed with his sabers at an unimaginable speed.

More than twenty black slashes appeared in the air from his position.

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The wind slashes slammed in the beasts around him, some rank 2 beasts were killed on the spot or heavily injured while the rank 3 ones were pushed back due to the might of the blows.

A small circular area was emptied around Noah as he jumped toward a rank 2 beast stabbing his saber in its head.

'Let's see the limits of the liquid stage!'

Meanwhile, in the area where the four strong Rabid moles appeared.

The soldiers of both families were facing each other to leave the battle against the powerful foes to the best in their groups.

Five people were engaged in a fierce battle against the beasts, with Trevor and Lena from the Balvan family and the appointed captain and two descendants from the Noorge family.

Trevor was swinging his sword with dexterity, deflecting all the attacks that came at him while Lena was shooting water bullets, injuring the beast she was focused on.

Since there were four moles, the five of them were momentarily focused on two each.

Trevor deflected another blow but was sent back by the fangs of the second mole that they were fighting.

"Dammit!"

He cursed loudly.

"Mylady their strength equals a peak rank 3 magical beast, I'm afraid that if we remain this passive we will lose ground to the Noorge family."

Lena retreated with him and nodded.

"The biggest problem is that they all look identical so we don't know who the leader is. I think we should get serious."

As soon as she said that, she clasped her hands together and then separated them while concentrating.

A water whip was created between her hands!

Lena's complexion paled a bit but then a bottle appeared in front of her and she directly drank it.

Her sweating stopped and she immediately struck with the whip.

The mole that she focused on with her previous spell was surprised by the speed of the new one and was struck in the head without having the chance to block the blow.

Trevor didn't let this chance be wasted and thrust his sword in the terrain.

Then, he strongly held on it while stretching his right arm toward the mole with his fingers pointing at it.

The wind blew around his arm and amassed on the fingers before releasing a piercing attack made of compressed air.

The lance of wind struck the already injured mole and pierced through it, leaving a hole as big as two fists on its body.

The mole fell on the ground and turned into smoke, the had successfully killed it!

Tremor smiled while supporting himself on his sword, the attack from before had consumed most of his mental energy but the effects were amazing.

'A pity that it takes so much to prepare, in a one versus one battle it's almost impossible to use.'

He analyzed the spell in his mind but then he heard another thud.

The three from the Noorge family had defeated a mole too.

The two remaining magical beasts were identical in every aspect, it was impossible to understand which one of them was the leader.

"We can only pray that our luck is good."

Lena spoke, sensing the doubts in Trevor's mind.

He nodded in acknowledgment and raised his sword toward the mole in front of them.

He charged ahead, now that the numbers were in their favor the battle became onesided.

Trevor blocked every attack of the fangs while Lena swung her whip with high dexterity relentlessly hitting its body.

The fight continued for a while until the mole could not keep up anymore and lowered its arms devoid of any strength.

Trevor stabbed his sword into its body and Lena wrapped her whip on its head as she pulled with great force.

The mole died on the spot and turned into smoke while it was still standing.

Before they could cheer though, the remaining beast roared with vigor forcing the five people to plug their ears to resist the shock wave.

A golden crown appeared on its head and the injuries that were inflicted on it began to heal.

All the soldiers understood that the leader had appeared.

When the shockwave was over, Trevor and Lena hurriedly jumped toward the beast but they were quite a distance away from it compared to the group from the Noorge family.

The three from the Noorge family didn't waste their advantage and assaulted the pack leader with their most powerful attacks.

Two big fireballs shot out from the two descendants while the appointed captain had his hands on the ground controlling four snakes made of terrain to restrict and wound the beast.

The leader could not evade the fireballs as its lower body was bitten by the captain's snakes.

The spells collided with its body and a loud explosion occurred.

When the dust settled, what remained of the mole was just its lower body still blocked in the snake's embrace.

Then, the remains of the body turned into smoke which signaled that the leader was dead.

The three from the Noorge family cheered loudly and turned toward Trevor and Lena.

The two descendants were two sisters both of the fire element and looked at Lena with a bit of pity.

"This time we were lucky, your brother and cousin are simply too young to affect this fight. It was a nice competition though."

They bowed as a form of respect to Lena.

Lena sighed and bowed silently to accept their courteous greeting.

At that point, the battlefield illuminated and many brilliant runes shot out from the terrain.

The runes exploded mid-air and released a bright powder that entered the bodies of the men and women in the area.

However, only the people from the Balvan family underwent this process!

The two sisters were surprised and complained loudly.

"How is this possible, we killed the leader! How many more beasts could they have killed to make up for that!"

As if remembering something, they turned their heads to look in the direction where the pack was.

They saw a young man in red armor sweating profusely and breathing roughly.

There were no beasts around him and only a few strands of smoke were recognizable among the bright powder that surrounded him.

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Noah's liquid "Breath" in his dantian was below half of its maximum capacity.

Even though most of the beasts around him were rank 2, he still had to fight at full strength due to the encirclement.

From the start of the battle till that moment, he had released more than two hundred attacks fueled with his dantian and yet he still had some spare energy.

His body was recovering at fast speed and his condition was stabilizing while the powder entered his body.

'My limit right now is around three hundred and fifty full power attacks and I also have more than one hundred weaker ones due to the gaseous "Breath" in my body. Good, really good.'

He could have spent less liquid "Breath" if he used Assea but he was firm in hiding it.

'The higher the density of the "Breath" the stronger my attacks will be, but they will also consume more of it. However, these are just beasts. Against another cultivator, my only real advantage is Assea since it's a spell useful in any situation.'

Like he was in the liquid stage, so were many others.

Like he had a rank 3 martial art and a rank 3 body, so had many others.

His battle experience was something remarkable, as was his strong mind, but the first could be acquired easily and the other was useless without spells.

'I need abilities specific to my aptitude and talents and not anything that is simply one rank higher than the other.'

For example, Lena had the water bullet that was a versatile spell with a low cost of "Breath" added to her water whip that paired perfectly with her dexterity with that weapon.

Her foundation was stable and she might even have some other spells that Noah was unaware of.

Of course, that knowledge came from his days spent as a training dummy, during the previous battle he was too focused on the pack and didn't see the fight against the four peak rank 3 moles.

'I guess that if I had a darkness-type beast as a blood companion things would be different.'

He knew that the spell he had was very powerful, yet he still couldn't use its full potential.

'Dammit, everything always points to the academy.'

The light faded and the powder was completely absorbed by the Balvan group.

Noah felt a series of new information in his mind that described a precise route toward a certain spot in the grassland.

He looked at the others in his group and from their whispers and gestures he understood that they had received the same type of knowledge.

'Even transmitting pieces of information directly in someone's mind is possible. Why do I even bother being surprised anymore?'

He shook his head while he sat on the ground to meditate to recover from the battle.

Trevor nodded to his behavior and gestured to everyone to do the same.

As the appointed captain, failing to obtain the entrance to the second stage against the Noorge family would have had a negative impact on his position so he began to view Noah under a different light.

He and Lena had done their parts going even with the Noorge family but it was still Noah who tilted the scales of the battle.

Lena looked at him for a bit while she sat and took out some medicines from her space-ring.

There was some wariness in her eyes and she decided in her mind to ask for advice to her parents on how to handle the situation when she went back to the mansion.

After all, she had already made sure that Noah hated her but only now she realized that he could actually become someone important in the family.

The group from the Noorge family looked dejected at the resting soldiers and decided to resume their march at a slow pace searching for another pack of beasts.

Lena was the first to recover thanks to all the potions that the family gave her and went to check the condition of the other guards.

Apart from a few injured ones, everyone could still fight at full strength.

Fabian and Neil had done almost nothing during the battle.

They both had a rank 2 body and since a big part of the pack was handled by Noah they had barely made any effort.

After half a day of rest, Trevor stood up and commanded everyone to move.

Noah lazily stood up, his dantian had refilled by a quarter of his full capacity so he was more than ready to march.

There was no need for directions or gestures as everyone knew the route they had to move to.

Hours passed and all they could see was the endless green plain which made them feel like they hadn't moved at all.

It had to pass another half a day before they reached the spot signaled in their mind.

It was still in the grassland but anytime they looked at the terrain forming the entrance, the ground would light up and color itself orange.

Trevor looked at the ground for a bit before facing the soldiers behind him and speaking.

"Here is the entrance for the second stage, we will all jump inside at the same time. Remember that this stage has no fixed pattern so you have to be ready for anything. Bring honor to the Balvan family!"

"For the Balvan family"

The soldier echoed Trevor's battle cry and positioned themselves around the perimeter of the ingress area.

Trevor had the descendants on both sides while Noah was in his opposite position.

He raised his hand to make everyone concentrate and then he lowered it with a fast gesture.

The soldiers jumped, while Trevor made sure that everyone went inside.

Noah had no choice but to jump because Lena's gaze was fixed on him.

He felt again the pressure of the teleportation and when he opened his eyes he found himself alone in a dark spacious area.

After a few seconds, a metallic male voice sounded in the place.

"Inheritance ground second stage: solo battle prowess test."

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'Solo battle?'

Noah carefully inspected his surroundings with his mental energy.

Every time it hit the walls of the room, his perception would flutter, disturbed by the "Breath" which they were made of.

He seemed to be in some sort of underground closed area fifty square meters large and he sensed no living forms around him.

'It seems that I'm really alone here.'

He coldly watched in front of him as some runes in the terrain began to shine and rose in the air.

A rank 2 Rabid mole appeared between the halo of light and the voice sounded again.

"If you want to give up, please break the rune that formed in your sea of consciousness."

Noah's eyes widened and he hastily checked his mental sphere.

His cross-legged figure inside it opened his eyes and was astonished to find an orange rune between his hands.

Noah came back to reality and could not help but feel some reverence toward the cultivator that set up the separate dimension.

'This world can directly interfere with the insides of my mental sphere! This is incredible!'

The beast stood still as if waiting for Noah to make the first move.

'This inheritance ground was made for cultivators under the age of twenty so this stage should be calibrated on a reasonable difficulty. I might really get something valuable here.'

His reasoning had no flaws so Noah decided to make a serious attempt in obtaining a good reward.

His eyes focused as he took out his upper armor and put it in the space-ring.

Then he wore the ring on his finger and made a step in the direction of the beast.

His sabers were unsheathed since he jumped in the second stage.

The rank 2 mole charged as soon as he moved but was instantly killed by a casual strike from Noah.

The beast turned into smoke that accumulated back where the runes were and two rank 2 moles came out of the halo.

'Ohh so that's how it will work. Well, I always wanted to know my true limit too.'

A slight smile appeared on his face as he ran toward the two beasts killing them in an instant.

The same process repeated and four moles appeared.

Noah charged at them without hesitation.

Time passed and the number of beasts appearing together kept on increasing.

Noah had just killed the last specimen of the latest wave of enemies.

'Forty this time. I wonder how many there will be now.'

He didn't use the liquid "Breath" in his dantian at all and was only relying on the one in his body to fight.

Since it recovered even as he fought, using it was the best method to maintain himself at peak form.

After the forty strands of smoke rejoined the halo, the runes shined with more intensity as if they were charging themselves.

Then, a rank 3 mole came out of it and stood still looking at Noah.

'So it's time for the advancement in rank, luckily I'm alone now.'

He charged toward the beast and pointed his sabers to deliver a blow.

The mole prepared to block the blade raising its fangs but was met by the black teeth of a reptilian head.

Its paws were locked in the snake's mouth so he had no way of protecting itself from Noah's strike in its blind side.

Its head was severed and it turned into smoke.

A rank 3 beast was killed with only two attacks!

'It's way easier when I use Assea. Magic spells are awesome!'

The smoke went back to the halo and two rank 3 Rabid moles appeared.

'The real challenge starts now.'

About an hour later, still in the area of the second stage.

Noah was surrounded by six rank 3 Rabid moles with their strength being in the middle-tier of the rank.

He had begun to use his liquid "Breath" long ago and he swung his sabers madly in every direction.

Assea would randomly appear every time he needed to block an attack or to deliver a sneaky bite to a beast.

Wounds kept on accumulating on the six moles and their movement began to slow down.

At some point, one of them appeared in Noah's blind spot and was about to raise its fangs to strike but it was soon enveloped by Assea's mouth.

Noah turned and hastily pierced its head, its body transformed into smoke.

Now that their number was lowered, the fight became easier.

It took Noah another fifteen minutes to vanquish the beasts and when the fight was over he sat on the ground to meditate.

He discovered that the test gave him a ten minutes break after every battle.

Initially, he didn't need to rest but as the numbers of rank 3 moles increased, he found himself depleting more and more liquid "Breath".

The new beasts would be created immediately but they would stay still until the ten minutes passed.

Noah wouldn't even look at his opponents and he opened his eyes only when an attack came to him.

Doing that allowed him to maximize the time spent recovering.

Ten minutes passed and Noah felt a threat in front of him.

He suddenly opened his eyes and dodged the incoming attack.

'Peak rank 3!'

There was only one enemy in front of him but it was at the peak of the stage.

'The difficulty increased again by one tier.'

Against a single enemy, he actually had it quite easy as he could exploit the numerical advantage given by his blood companion.

The battle was fierce.

Noah had fought magical beasts in its same rank twice already but they were injured both times.

However, he now had a rank 3 body and Assea wasn't hindered by any other enemies.

Little by little, the rank 3 mole lost terrain as it was being assaulted on two sides.

Then, Noah forced it to block a powerful frontal blow and Assea bit off a big piece of its defenseless back.

The beast turned into smoke and Noah sat to meditate.

When he reopened his eyes, two peak rank 3 moles were punching at him.

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Noah retreated hastily sending Assea in front of him to block the beasts' assault.

By then, he was used to fighting while withstanding the pain that Assea suffered.

His blood companion's body was shredded but recomposed instantly and locked one of the enemies in a fierce fight.

Noah could defeat a peak rank 3 beast alone so he just chose to divide the attention of the two Rabid moles between him and Assea.

Assea's body continued to be injured and broken, there was no way to compare its strength to that of the beast.

However, one of the strong points of the companion was its recovery.

Assea continued to lose every clash with the mole but it never let its opponent attack Noah.

On the other side, Noah was releasing torrents of wind blades on his enemy.

The pain he felt due to his companion was nothing he couldn't endure.

The battle protracted for more than twenty minutes.

Even though Noah had the advantage the whole time, his opponent was still a king among rank 3 beasts.

Its resilience was immense and endured wound after wound that he managed to inflict.

Noah didn't let it rest for even an instant as he continued to strike trying to deliver a fatal blow.

Inevitably, that moment arrived.

The mole was covered with tens of cuts, no blood came out of its wounds but the effects of the injuries were still shown on it.

Its paws were one second too late and Noah's blade passed through its defenses.

FFFFFFF

The soft sound of its body turning into smoke reached Noah's ears and he didn't hesitate to turn himself and charge toward the remaining beast.

Assea was just acting as a punching dummy while it kept on charging selflessly at the mole.

When Noah gave the command, it coiled around the beast uncaring of its body being broken continuously.

Noah took advantage of the restrained beast and severed its body in half with a double strike from his sabers.

The round was over and Noah sat on the ground to meditate.

Even if he managed to be uninjured, a large quantity of his "Breath" had been depleted.

During the previous battle, he had to fuel Assea's body with liquid "Breath" because the gaseous one in his body could not keep up with the intensity of its fight.

'For how long will this keep going? I'm quite sure that even Lena could have won the last round only thanks to her potions.'

The standards of this trial had to be set considering the ages of the candidates.

Noah knew that his biggest advantage in the test was that he could divert some enemies' attention to his blood companion, the numerical difficulty of the trial was halved for him.

Hadn't it been for Assea's presence, the previous battle would have most likely been his last.

'I can't continue for much longer, what kind of requirements did this cultivator had when he set up the dimension?'

When the ten minutes were over, he had less than one hundred and fifty attacks available.

He felt something charging at him and he opened his eyes while jumping in retreat.

'This will be my last round.'

He could not help to think of that seeing four peak rank 3 Rabid moles.

Noah took a deep breath, his figure in the sea of consciousness held the rune tightly, ready to break it at any moment.

The magical beasts advanced at high speed and as soon as they reached him, they stretched their nails to deliver a powerful strike.

Thirty-two gray blades pierced the air toward his position, one for every finger of the beasts.

Noah waited until the tips of the fangs were a few centimeters from his head to call Assea.

Then, the huge body of a snake appeared in his position.

Its body was pierced and cut in many points by the attacks until it could not support itself anymore and shattered, yet there was no one in the now empty area where Assea previously was.

He instead appeared below one of the moles, ready to swing his weapons.

The beasts reacted and tilted their fangs to reduce into pieces the human below them.

Deep marks were left on the floor as the moles didn't have time to retract their nails but before they could hit the young man, the body of the snake reappeared slowing the blows.

Assea's body shattered again but from its disappearing figure, two shadows flew out.

One of them was Noah that was retreating with a light wound on his back.

The other one was a wind slash that hit one of the moles' fingers and directly severed it!

'Thirty-one to go.'

Mole-types beasts were generally weaker than snake-types ones, their bodies were not as strong and their only method of attack was through their extensible fangs.

Noah could not win in a frontal battle so he decided to destroy their weapons in order to decrease their dangerousness.

However, to achieve that feat he had to continuously sacrifice Assea's body fueled with liquid "Breath" and he still could not avoid getting stricken from time to time.

Noah smiled unconsciously, a cold aura radiated from him as his concentration reached its peak.

'One mistake and I lose. If I run out of "Breath" I lose. This is how a real battle should be!'

Almost an hour passed.

In the underground room, one young man and four moles were staring at each other.

The four moles had all their fingers chopped off from their paws and they assumed a four-legged stance to charge at the human in front of them.

On the other side, Noah was breathing heavily, his complexion was paler than it had ever been and countless wounds were on his body dripping blood on the ground.

Inside his sea of consciousness, Assea's figure was cracked and in need of recovery, that day its body has been destroyed so many times that the damages had extended to Noah's mental sphere.

The beasts didn't have their fangs anymore so they chose to assault him with their bare bodies.

Their charge began and they opened their mouths ready to bite the small human.

Noah was still smiling and looked at the incoming beasts with a calm gaze.

As the moles jumped on him, his sabers moved and released the last eight attacks that his dantian was capable of providing.

The four were hit by two strikes each while still mid-air and their bodies were cut from head to toe by Noah's final blows.

What hit Noah was just the smoke of the dissolving beasts.

He fell on his knees completely drained of every bit of energy, he didn't see that the halo generated by the runes was becoming more intense.

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Noah gasped for air, his acupoints were already refilling the "Breath" in his body but his dantian was completely empty, he had expended every drop of "Breath" he had in it.

'That is the best I can do, I even injured Assea to pass the round.'

He turned to look at the runes and saw that the halo was becoming more intense.

'Don't tell me that there is more? What is it going to be now? Six peak rank 3? One rank 4?'

The scenes from the Twilboia Cliff reappeared in his mind and he trembled a bit remembering the newly advanced rank 4 snake.

'I can't win against that thing even if there were three of me fighting it.'

He sat in the cross-legged position to refill his dantian, he didn't want to go back to the first stage totally exhausted.

'I'll just see what comes out and then break the rune in my sphere.'

The vitality of his body was already healing his wounds as the acupoints rotated, in the ten minutes break he could at least stabilize his most serious injuries.

However, ten minutes passed and nothing happened, the light continued to illuminate the room without creating any other magical beast.

Thirty minutes passed and there were still no changes in the halo.

Noah didn't bother to think much about it and welcomed the extra time given to him to recover as he continued to cultivate.

Healing Assea would take too much time so he focused on accumulating liquid "Breath".

When one hour had passed, the halo dispersed and a peculiar figure was shown to Noah.

He had a loose orange robe with golden thunders sewed on it.

He was levitating in a cross-legged position with his eyes closed and he had a long combed white beard.

The thing that attracted Noah's attention the most though was his incredibly large pointy hat.

It seemed one of those hats that warlocks or witches wore in the games of his previous world but that one was almost three meters of diameter and was made of some metallic material.

Noah was so surprised that he stopped meditating and just stared at the elderly man in the air.

Then the man opened his eyes and looked around him in a confused manner.

The runes at his side exploded and released a powder that flowed into his body.

As the powder was absorbed, his eyes regained clarity and he began to nod.

"Mh, mh, I understand."

Only then his gaze went on Noah that was still looking at him and after nodding a few more times he spoke.

"You are of the darkness element am I right?"

Noah's eyes widened and he gulped sonorously while nodding.

The elderly cultivator saw his answer and shook his head.

"What a pity, what a pity."

Noah wanted to understand more and struggled to stand up to perform a respectful bow before speaking.

"S-senior wh-"

The man didn't let him finish the phrase and waved his hand sending orange powder in Noah's direction.

The powder was too fast and entered his body under Noah's incredulous gaze.

He began to retreat instinctively but an orange halo was already surrounding him.

Noah started to panic but then he noticed that his dantian was being refilled on its own!

The wounds on his body healed in an instant and even the mental energy in his sea of consciousness was restored to its maximum capacity.

Assea's cracked figure recomposed completely and was filled by so much energy that the blood companion came out from Noah's body autonomously and hissed at the ceiling!

"That is indeed a good spell. Never would I have expected that spells regarding puppets would have reached such a level in the future."

Noah was still examining his body that had returned to his peak form.

When the man spoke, Noah's gaze moved to him, only reverence was shown by his eyes.

"Thank you very much, Senior!"

Noah said repeating his bow.

The elderly man placed his feet to the ground and stretched one of his arms assuming an imposing posture.

"The world knows me as Eccentric Thunder, I've accumulated wealth for hundreds of years and set this inheritance ground to find an heir worthy to be called my disciple."

He stared at Noah, a bit of disappointment was exuded from his eyes.

"I am already dead but my will resides in the runes of my dimension. Young one, you are indeed worthy of being my disciple, sadly it appears that the luck both of us is bad."

Eccentric Thunder sighed before continuing his speech.

"There are two conditions to become my heir. The first one is to have the necessary strength and you clearly fulfilled that or I won't be here. The second one is for him or her to be of the thunder element."

Noah felt dejected, he had fought so hard only to be punished by his bad luck.

Eccentric Thunder continued seeing his expression.

"I am but a will, I need to obey the rules set by my true self when he created the dimension. Since you passed the test you have the right to obtain my most valuable asset of the darkness element. Rejoice, it's a top tier spell that will accompany you through all your cultivation journey."

Noah's eyes lit up hearing his words and a bit of eagerness invaded him.

"I'm really sorry, young one. The rules that I set up clearly state that anyone that doesn't fulfill the two conditions has the right to receive only one reward. I could not risk that my accumulations might have been expended before I had found a successor. One test one reward, that's the rule. The dimension is now preparing to transfer the diagram directly into your sea of consciousness, you will be sent out soon."

Noah fell deep in thought.

'One spell doesn't help me that much to escape, there are still the elite guards waiting on the entrance to the first stage and I can't possibly defeat them.'

He bowed again.

"Senior, is there another exit from the separate dimension to the outer world?"

Eccentric Thunder snorted and sent another ray of orange powder toward Noah.

"Hmph, who do you think I am? Here, this is the complete map of the inheritance ground. Take it as an apology for the single reward."

Many pieces of information were injected in Noah's mind and he rejoiced to see that there was hope to escape from the Balvan group.

He was about to bow again when a strange idea formed in his mind.

A shameless smile appeared on his face as he neared the elderly cultivator.

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Eccentric Thunder's words made Noah realize something.

'The map of the inheritance ground can be considered as a reward, right? Giving it to me should have been impossible if the rules had to be followed strictly.'

Noah came from a different world so he had two points of view on everything.

'If the separate dimension can be considered as a program that would mean that there are ways to cheat it.'

He thought of the potential loopholes that there could be in the dimension's rules and the cultivator's words gave him some ideas.

He arrived in front of him and asked in the most persuasive voice that he could muster.

"Grandpa Thunder, if you could, would you be willing to give me more prizes?"

Eccentric Thunder was a bit shocked.

The runes had shown him Noah's battle and the expression that he was making at that time was the complete opposite of the cold smiling one he had when he was fighting.

"Hm, well, yes, but as I told you: rules are rules, I can't help you with that."

He crossed his arms on his chest and looked away from Noah.

Noah continued his persuasion.

"What if you gave me more tests before I return to the first stage? Passing them wouldn't mean obtaining more rewards?"

Eccentric Thunder thought for a moment and then slowly nodded.

"Yes, that might work. But the diagram for your spell will be ready in the time it takes an incense stick to burn, you will never be able to clear one of the tests in that little time."

'Five minutes so.'

Noah thought for a little and could only find one solution.

"Mh, what if you set a new test that consists of simple questions? I believe that a mighty Senior like you could do that without much effort."

The old man snorted.

"Of course I can do that, but that would be giving you things for free. It is immoral! A cultivator has to earn his power!"

He raised his head to the ceiling to appear pure and virtuous but his enormous hat made the scene look a bit ridiculous.

However, Noah's next words made him turn abruptly with his eyes widened.

"What if I find you a worthy descendant?"

Eccentric Thunder stared at the young man and gulped, Noah could not help but remark the realism of the dimension.

"Do you know of someone that fulfills the conditions?"

Noah moved his gaze to the ground and shook his head.

"Well, not currently. But you must know that I'm planning to join a famous organization full of young talents even stronger than me."

He shrugged his shoulders and took out one of his sabers while sighing sonorously.

"However, the journey will be long and hard. There are guards waiting for me on the first stage from whom I have to escape. Then, I would have to travel alone for many months and all of this will be useless if I don't pass their entrance test."

He laid the saber on his hands and showed it to the cultivator.

"Look, my sabers are full of dents from all the battles I went through. My cultivation technique is a weak rank 1 technique that has no elemental requirements and my blood companion doesn't even fit me! I guess I will have to give up on escaping after all, I don't think I can manage in my mission with only a new spell."

Eccentric Thunder was about to respond but Noah continued.

"I hope you the best luck Grandpa Thunder. Even if your inheritance ground is occupied by the Shosti family and the entrance is under their control, I believe that a worthy heir will appear in this remote countryside sooner or later. Heaven and Earth can't be so unfair to you."

Noah seemed really disheartened when he spoke about the situation on the outside world making the worries of the elderly man increase.

Many years had passed, Eccentric Thunder had no knowledge of the environment outside his dimension.

He had set many entrances but until now only one had been discovered and the Shosti family had made it their biggest form of income.

However, what if they restricted the ingress?

What if his fated heir was among those that could not have access to the inheritance ground?

Eccentric Thunder didn't have much time to think about it since Noah was about to be sent out to the first stage.

A few seconds passed before the man spoke resolutely.

"Scoundrel, give me your hand, you have a deal."

Noah immediately raised his right hand toward him, he expected his approval since his conditions were good.

Eccentric Thunder held his arm and orange light began to shine on their handshake.

"Swear upon your dantian that you will do anything in your power to send a worthy young cultivator of the thunder element in one of the entrances that are on the map that I gave you."

Noah's smile disappeared replaced by his usual cold expression as he set a condition.

"A cultivator that I'm sure will not harm me in the future."

Eccentric Thunder looked for a moment deep into the young man's eyes and nodded internally.

'He sure has the attitude needed to reach a high level.'

"Fine."

Noah then smiled again.

"I swear!"

The orange light condensed and inscribed a rune on Noah's arm that was then absorbed under his skin.

Information on the specifics of the agreement and on how to fulfill it entered his mind and he felt satisfied with them.

Eccentric Thunder let his hand go and thought for a moment before a rune appeared in front of him.

He was about to speak when Noah spoke again.

"Really simple questions, my knowledge is lacking."

The old man nodded and pressed his hand on the rune.

"Which one is the best element?"

'EH!?!'

Noah was a bit surprised.

He answered with a hesitant voice.

"Thunder?"

Eccentric Thunder smiled and the rune shined briefly.

"Good, good, since you were able to answer this difficult question you deserve this rank 2 cultivation technique of your element."

A scroll appeared in front of Noah and he hastily put it in his space-ring.

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In the underground room of the second stage.

Noah and Eccentric Thunder were smiling at each other while the rune between them shined shortly from time to time.

"Which color is the most good looking?"

"Orange!"

"Ohh, I see that you are an expert. Take this reagent, it will help you breaking through ranks."

"What about hats?"

"The larger they are the more awesome they appear!"

"Correct! I think this pair of sabers will suit you. They have an inscription that repairs them through "Breath"."

"Who do you think is the most awesome character in the history of cultivators?"

"Senior Eccentric Thunder is the best of course!"

"You think so? I will humbly accept this compliment and give you an Earth pill then."

Noah was taking everything that the rune made appear in his space-ring without even looking at it, he wanted to make the best usage of the little time he had.

"As for beards, mh? Which ones are the best in their kind?"

"Long and combed like yours Senior!"

"Ohoh, you are such a smart kid. Here, take this new space-ring, it has more than fifty cubic meters of space inside."

Noah wore the newly appeared ring on one of his free fingers and looked at the old man with eagerness.

Eccentric Thunder seemed to like having someone that approved his appearance and would smile every time Noah answered one of his questions.

Noah began to understand why he was called "Eccentric".

However, after he asked the fifth question, he stayed silent for a moment and closed his eyes while knitting his brows.

When he opened his eyes he shook his head in Noah's direction.

"I'm sorry, it appears that I can't stretch the rules more than this, I'm beginning to feel a backlash from the dimension."

Noah's enthusiasm was crushed but then he accepted the outcome.

'I have obtained a cultivation technique, new weapons, a new space-ring, and the means to reach the second rank of the dantian, this is already incredibly good. And there is the top tier spell that he spoke about earlier.'

Noah sorted the rewards in his mind.

"How long till I'm sent out?"

Eccentric Thunder answered.

"Two parts of incense."

'Two minutes so, I have to hurry.'

He put his old sabers in the space-ring and took out the new ones.

They were silver with some green symbols inscribed on them.

Noah swung them a couple of times and then nodded in satisfaction.

He donned again the red upper armor and tied the sheaths of his new weapons on his back.

The sabers were held tightly in his hands while in his mind he reviewed the path that he had to take to escape.

He was ready to abandon the Balvan family!

Eccentric Thunder smiled a bit seeing again the cold expression of the young man.

"When the diagram will be inscribed in your sea of consciousness it will hurt a bit. However, all the specifics about the spell will be passed too, so you won't have to train in its activation."

Noah looked at the elderly man and made a bow in gratitude.

"I promise I will bring you a good disciple."

Eccentric Thunder snorted but smiled happily.

"Of course you will, a deal with me can't be broken that easily!"

They smiled looking at each other.

Noah then felt the pressure of the teleportation and disappeared from the second stage.

Eccentric Thunder shook his head while mumbling softly.

"Kids these days have become too cunning."

A few hours before, on the first stage.

Soldiers from the Balvan family appeared one by one and began to discuss the contents of the trial.

They were exhausted and rested on the ground making bets on who would be able to last more in the test.

Neil and Fabian arrived almost at the same time, creating silence between the guards.

Their complexion was a bit pale but they were uninjured, the soldiers understood that they had retreated before the situation became too difficult.

Time passed and in the second stage remained only Trevor, Lena, and Noah.

Then, Trevor appeared, he had a large wound on his chest and his armor was broken but his arms were tightly holding a spear with some inscriptions on it.

He was smiling since he managed to obtain some rewards but his expression froze when he saw who was missing.

'I killed one of the two peak rank 3 magical beasts but I had to suffer a severe injury to do that. I understand that Lady Lena can do better than me but how is it possible that Noah is still not here?'

He sat on the ground to threat his body but his gaze would often fall on the ingress of the stage.

Another person arrived and when the light of the teleportation disappeared, Lena's almost naked figure was shown to the group.

Trevor hastily stood up and jumped toward her, tearing off some of his clothes in order to cover the descendant.

She didn't care much and just sat on the ground swallowing pills and potions to heal the harsh damages on her body.

When her injuries stabilized, she smiled toward Trevor and showed him a small scroll.

"I did it, I obtained a spell. Sadly I couldn't clear the successive round but this should be enough. Once I've recovered, we can move."

Trevor's expression became complex and lowered his head to speak in a soft voice.

"My lady about that, ehm, Noah is still inside the test."

Lena's eyes widened and her gaze ran through the group but she couldn't find her bastard cousin.

She looked again at Trevor.

"How is that possible? The next round had four peak rank 3 beasts while he doesn't even have a spell! I bet that he is running around against the single peak rank 3 waiting for us to think that he died down there. Hmph, if he thinks that I'll let him go that easily he is wrong."

Trevor nodded at her theory but was a bit doubtful inside his mind.

'He can definitely kill a peak rank 3 alone, is he really stalling for time? To what point though, there is only one entrance.'

He sat beside Lena and calmly waited for Noah to appear.

A bit more than an hour passed and the light of the teleportation flashed again.

Noah appeared, he was holding two silver sabers in his hands.

His eyes were closed and some sweat ran down his forehead.

He seemed in pain.

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Inside Noah's sea of consciousness.

Black roots tangled themselves on the figure of the first Kesier rune.

A complex diagram appeared with the roots as its lines.

The roots then tried to extend on the faint form of the second Kesier rune but its image was too ethereal and they retreated after they failed on grasping it.

The process sent waves of pain on Noah's mind.

However, with it came also the knowledge about the spell.

Its effects, the usage, the strong points, and the weak ones, everything became known by Noah in an instant.

'He wasn't bragging when he said that it was a top tier spell.'

This was his first thought when his mind was freed from the pain and he opened his eyes.

The group from the Balvan family was staring at him with wide eyes.

They could not understand how he stayed in the second stage for so much time and came out unharmed!

He had remained in the test for about one hour more than Lena and she was supposed to be the stronger of their group.

Noah released a cold aura seeing that the attention was focused on him, he laid the sabers on his shoulders and gazed at Trevor and Lena.

He was waiting for their move.

Lena stood up and Trevor did the same, the others behind them didn't quite understand the reason for such tension.

Lena spoke.

"Did you obtain a reward?"

Noah answered briefly.

"Yes."

"What have you got?"

"Why should I tell you?"

Lena's eyes sharpened and the soldiers behind her stood up, insubordination wasn't allowed in the slightest among the guards of a noble family.

Lena continued.

"Because I'm your superior, you serve me."

Noah looked at the fake sky, only an orange color filled his sight.

He spoke.

"I believe that you can't ask about the secrets of a cultivator. My Master once told me that this is an unspoken rule in the cultivation world."

Lena snorted.

"But you are not a cultivator, you are simply a bastard that had the chance to learn some tricks because his mother opened her legs to a noble."

Noah smiled faintly at her remark and moved his gaze back at her.

"And that would make me less of a cultivator? I believed that there was only one way to judge that."

Lena smiled too.

"What would that be?"

Noah's face became stern.

"Strength."

Lena laughed and pointed her hand at him.

"You are so naive! Strength means nothing! So what if someone is powerful? He can always be overwhelmed by numbers! And numbers come with wealth! Hurry and give me your reward, your punishment will be a light one if you stop here."

Noah shook his head.

"That is not happening."

Lena began to lose her cool.

"What, do you think that back at the mansion they will let you keep it for yourself? The Patriarch will personally open your sea of consciousness to retrieve what you learnt and give it to the Shosti family."

She was about to speak more when Trevor stepped in front of her.

"He is not coming back."

As a guard, Trevor too had desired to escape.

He was privileged but he was still the dog of his masters.

No matter how well he was treated, his position remained one of servitude so he could understand Noah's thoughts better than Lena.

In her mind, soldiers could never think about rebellion or escape due to the might of her noble family.

As her eyes widened in understanding, Noah jumped ahead.

Twenty black slashes were sent toward Trevor and Lena.

Except for Lena that had mostly recovered thanks to her resources, the group was tired and wounded while Noah was at the peak of his strength.

Lena created a wall of water and Trevor raised his sword to take on him some of the force of the slashes.

There was no need to do so as Lena's spell absorbed that attacks completely.

However, Noah had disappeared from their vision.

They turned when they heard a scream from one of the soldiers in their group.

Noah was freely swinging his sabers on the exhausted soldiers.

They had given their outmost in the test and even if they had time to restore some of their "Breath" and to stabilize their body, their battle prowess didn't reach half of what they were capable of.

Heads flew in the air and blood poured on the ground as the guards fell lifelessly one by one.

Trevor prioritized securing the descendants and ran toward Neil and Fabian taking them where Lena was standing with her arm raised.

She was trying to aim for Noah with her water bullets but he was always behind some soldier and she never had a clear shot.

In the end, they could only watch as the twenty guards were killed.

Lena didn't hesitate, as the last guard fell on the ground and Noah's figure appeared in the open, she shot five bullets directly at him.

Noah swung his blades and ten slashes shot out to meet the spell.

The bullets pierced the technique but they were slowed enough to give Noah time to dodge.

He rapidly charged toward the remaining four members of the Balvan group.

Trevor put himself between him and the descendants, ready to take the first impact.

Noah clashed with him, two sabers met a sword, their physical strength was equal.

Lena smiled and raised her arm to aim for Noah but then a drop of a warm red liquid fell on her cheek.

Her eyes widened when she noticed that a big black figure had appeared on her side.

On one end of the black body, there was Noah's leg.

The other extremity was behind her with the shape of a reptilian head.

Between its fangs, Neil's body was being crushed and multiple wounds appeared on his body.

An invisible membrane though was protecting him, stopping Assea's teeth from stabbing deeper on his flesh.

Lena yelled and turned to attack the snake.

Trevor's attention was diverted on the beast but when he tried to look at it, its body had already disappeared.

He felt a sharp pain in his low waist and noticed that the snake's mouth had already bitten him there.

"How-?"

He could not finish the phrase as Noah tilted his sabers and thrust them into his chest.

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Trevor was already deeply injured, he had sacrificed his body to use his spell back on the second stage.

When the sabers pierced his heart and life began to leave his body, he looked deep into Noah's eyes.

They were cold and focused and had already moved toward his next targets, he didn't even deign him of one last gaze.

For some reason, he felt that Noah's escape was ensured.

'He will be Balvan family's biggest tribulation.'

The blades were pulled out of his body and he fell dead on the ground.

Lena was confused.

She had turned to help her brother but then the black snake vanished and reappeared in the opposite position.

She instinctively deployed a water shield to cover herself and the other two descendants.

A strong force hit the shield that made it bend toward the safe area behind it.

Lena focused and summoned the water whip yelling orders to the two boys.

"I need your help! Use everything you have to attack him and rely on the protective items of the family to keep yourself alive. I will face him head-on, you take care of the magical beast."

Another impact resounded from the shield and shattered it!

Assea shot out from the crystalline drops of which it was made and Lena's complexion paled due to the collapse of her spell.

However, she had no time to care about her condition and she raised her whip to block the blood companion's charge.

She endured its assault and her whip tangled on its body but then a figure shot out of it.

Noah jumped toward Fabian and delivered a descending double cut.

He raised his arms in panic and a metallic sound echoed from their clash.

On Fabian left arm, a deep cut appeared while a bluish membrane covered the spot where the sabers hit.

'The fuck are those things.'

The attack should have severed the noble in two but as the damage surpassed a determined gravity the membrane showed itself to prevent it.

Neil jumped toward him wielding a rapier adorned with blue gems.

Noah deflected it but then the gems blinked and shot a ray of light following the trajectory of Neil's blade.

Noah was unprepared and was hit superficially on the shoulder.

He retreated sensing the unknown threat and water bullets shot in his direction.

Assea's body appeared and was pierced by the bullets.

There was a moment of silence after that as no attacks were launched from both sides.

Noah looked from behind Assea and saw that the three nobles were all wielding shining weapons.

Lena had taken out a black whip with inscriptions on it, Neil had his rapier, and Fabian held a short white sword with both his hands.

Lena began to speak.

"I have to admit that your strength is remarkable but you can clearly see the advantage given by numbers and wealth."

Noah didn't mind spending time speaking.

Neil and Fabian were both injured and were losing blood while his body autonomously refilled "Breath".

"What's left of your numbers are two inexperienced brats. As for wealth..."

He focused his eyes on their armaments.

"Why none of you use sabers? I really wanted a new set of them."

He shook his head to mock them.

Lena saw that he had closed his eyes and hastily took out a pill from her space ring.

She was about to eat it when a few black slashes came in her direction forcing her to throw the pill away in order to block the attacks.

Noah had charged ahead again sending Assea on Lena to keep her busy while he tried to break the defenses of the other two nobles.

Neil was easy to handle, he simply had to avoid that the rapier pointed at him.

With his battle experience, dealing with such a weapon which was also poorly handled was easy.

The ability of Fabian's sword though was a bit more annoying.

It covered its wielder with a white circular shield that absorbed most of the force behind Noah's blows.

Even when Noah managed to pierce the shied the bluish protective layer would appear, negating any damage.

Meanwhile, Lena was destroying Assea's body time after time.

Every time her whip hit, the inscriptions would light up to amplify the power of the impact.

Assea was thrashed around sending waves of pain on Noah's sea of consciousness, it was not Lena's opponent.

Seeing that Noah could not succeed in hurting them seriously in the short term, the two nobles began to lose their fear of his blades and focused only on attacking.

'This is getting troublesome.'

He was one against three so his "Breath" consumption was higher.

He didn't want to prolong the battle for more than it was necessary.

'I guess I had to try it at some point.'

Inside his mental sphere.

The diagram on his first Kesier rune illuminated and the level of the sea began to decrease at high speed.

Noah sent a black slash in Neil's direction.

The descendant was used by then on relying on the protection of the membrane so he didn't even try to block the attack.

Lena had sharper senses and felt a sense of danger from the slash.

She was about to yell something when Assea jumped on her again.

The blow hit Neil's abdomen and clashed with the invisible layer of defense.

However, black smoke sprouted from it which corroded the membrane creating an opening for the strike.

Noah's attack cut unobstructed Neil's body in two.

A noble from a medium-size noble family died.

"NEIL!!!"

Lena screamed in sorrow seeing her brother's death and turned to look in anger in Noah's direction.

What she saw though made her tremble in fear.

Noah's body was being covered in black flickering smoke.

It hovered right over his skin forming a sort of quivering armor.

The black smoke protruded on his sabers and only his icy-blue eyes remained visible of his face.

'Wha-'

Even her thoughts stopped seeing the fiendish figure.

Then, the man said something in a low rugged voice.

"Demonic form."

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'Demonic form, rank based on the mental level of the user, darkness element. Creates an armor of corrosive smoke that enhances the body of the user. The black smoke can envelop the attacks of the user to destroy any defense on his path. The smoke is extremely deadly and since it covers the user it will also weaken any threat coming near him.'

That was the knowledge that came with the spell along with the specifics on its activation.

The spell was extremely ductile, it could be used separately on any part of the body or in its full form creating the fiendish figure that Lena was so stupefied of.

The information made Noah think that it could be possible to extend it even to his blood companion but he still hadn't had time to experiment on that.

The only drawback was that the consumption of mental energy was enormous.

'But that it's justified by its power!'

Noah thought, examining the data that he obtained with the spell.

Lena was petrified.

Every sense she had was madly sending warning messages to her mind.

She was about to take a step back when Assea wrapped itself around her.

"You stay there, I'll take care of my brother first."

The low rugged voice sounded again as Noah moved toward Fabian.

With every step he took, smoke would be released on the ground, making the runes that composed it waver as if they were trying to resist the corrosion.

When he was in front of the nobleman, he simply slashed with one of his sabers.

The white shield appeared but was destroyed by the sheer strength of the blow!

Then the blade hit the bluish membrane which fluctuated repeatedly and cracked in the point where the collision happened.

However, it held on and blocked Noah's strike.

"Oh, I see that daddy really cares about you."

Noah didn't bother too much and let go of the saber while his now free hand shot out to grab Fabian's throat.

He raised his body in the air while the smoke thoroughly wrapped around the noble.

Inhumane screams resounded from the coffin of smoke until only silence reined in the area.

Noah retracted his hand and picked up his saber.

The smoke dispersed showing only emptiness in its spot.

Of Fabian's body, there was no trace.

Lena stared horrified at the events unfolding and came back to reality only when Noah turned to her.

Her aspect became even paler and some blood came out of her nose.

BOOM!

An explosion occurred and Assea's body was shattered completely, even its figure in Noah's mental sphere cracked slightly due to the blast.

Lena came out from the dust that rose and began to run madly toward the direction of the entrance of the inheritance ground.

Her right arm was in pieces and only some flesh remained attached to the shoulder.

However, she didn't seem to care.

There was only one thought in her mind.

'I have to reach the guards on the outside!'

"Remarkable, you made your whip explode in order to escape. The Balvan family sure taught well."

A devilish voice sounded from her side and she turned her head with an incredulous expression.

She only saw a blade releasing black smoke aiming for her head.

A thud echoed in the area.

Noah pressed his foot on Lena's figure.

An invisible layer of protection saved her life but still couldn't prevent her from crashing on the ground.

He pointed his weapon on her and spoke, the smoke expanded from his foot and began to corrode her protection.

"Wealth."

He turned the point of the blade toward himself.

"Strength."

Lena's eyes were bloodshot.

The protective membrane shattered and the smoke attacked her body.

She gritted her teeth and through the pain, she managed to speak one last threat.

"The Balvan family will come for you."

Noah smirked, the face made of smoke cracked where his mouth was making his image even more devilish.

He neared his head to Lena's.

"No, I will come for them."

And then the smoke devoured her figure.

Of the group from the Balvan family, only Noah remained alive.

Noah dispersed his Demonic form.

He was pale and sweat flowed from his every pore, the spell had consumed more than half his mental energy in that short time.

'I need to work hard on the second Kesier rune from now on.'

He absorbed the remains of Lena's body in his space-ring and then he went back to the ingress of the second stage to put all the other bodies in the ring.

The total space of his space-rings was more than eighty cubic meters by then.

After he was sure that he retrieved everything and nothing was left on the ground, he checked the map of the separate dimension.

He found the farthest exit from the one of the Shosti family and ran in its direction.

The green plains seemed endless and could make anyone feel disoriented.

Noah moved at full speed for one entire day without stopping for even a moment.

His acupoints continuously absorbed "Breath" so he never had to slow down his pace.

He reached the spot signed on the map in his head but there was nothing different in the environment.

He carefully inspected the ground and found that there was a rune between the grass.

Noah didn't hesitate and touched hit.

An orange halo was formed and the pressure of the teleportation attacked his mind.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of a forest.

'Evergreen forest!'

According to the route he had taken, he knew that the exit would have been in the forest but he didn't know how deep in it he was.

Noah climbed the tallest tree he found and looked around him from above it.

The sky was crystal clear and there were mostly trees in his field of view.

'Found it!'

At a distance not too far away, he discovered the peak of a tower.

'That's Mossgrove city and it's only a half a day of travel from here. It seems that even space it's stretched in the separate dimension.'

He was not in the mood to feel amazed at the accomplishment of Eccentric Thunder and he jumped off the tree and began to run again.

His route was in the opposite direction of the city.

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Evergreen forest was vast, it spanned for many kilometers in an uneven way.

Inside it, there were many danger zones and, in its depths, it wasn't unusual to find rank 3 magical beasts or large packs.

Humans were the overlords of the world but magical beasts had the advantage in the evolution process, their numbers increased in every place where humans were scarce.

Twilboia Cliff was one of those areas and there were many more like it in the world.

Generally speaking, the areas were humans lived had to be secured often in order to stop the developing of the magical beasts.

Most of Noah's mission back in the mansion had that purpose.

He was deep in the forest, hidden in an empty cave that he found along the way.

A week had passed since the events in the inheritance ground and all he did was running in a straight line away from the Shosti domain.

He was consulting a map at that moment, his clothes had changed to his usual black ones and his hair was combed in a simple ponytail.

'The academy's entrance test befalls four months from now. The city holding one of them that suits me the most is Ebonrest city at two months of travel from my position. It is quite far from Mossgrove city and the communications are scarce with the Shosti family due to Sheflan Mountain between them.'

Noah had prepared his escape routes long ago.

His space-ring was full of long-lasting provisions, new clothes, and all the useful means for a long trip.

His clothes were mostly plain gym suits that he managed to steal from the servants, he could not be found wearing the armors of the Balvan family.

'I can reach it in less than one month if I travel at a decent speed but that's quite useless. I'd rather use my time alone to raise my strength before the test.'

He still had to sort out the rewards from Eccentric Thunder and the bodies of the group from the Balvan family were still in his other space-ring.

He had a long process of arranging goods ahead of him and he had to destroy the bodies but he prioritized his escape in that week.

At some point, Noah nodded and put back the map in the ring.

'I will focus on traveling for another week and just spare some time for the Kesier rune in the meantime. After that, I will slow my march considerably, sort the goods, and return to a complete training schedule.'

He didn't feel safe.

Even if he left no proof of the battle in the first stage he still preferred to be as far as he could from his family's influence.

'Though, it should be pretty hard to investigate in the separate dimension. I bet that things aren't that good in the mansion.'

He resumed his march at a fast pace toward Ebonrest city, he was careful to avoid any magical beasts on his road, he didn't want to leave any sign of his passage.

'There is also the fact that even if they reach the conclusion that the group is dead, they can't possibly suspect me. In their mind I'm just a talented kid with no spells, never could they imagine that I have two of them which are incredibly strong.'

The blood companion had proved its value countless times by then and it was even of an unfit element for Noah.

The Demonic form, instead, was extraordinary even for him, he couldn't really imagine that something like that existed.

Not only it was a specific spell of a rare element so inherently stronger than the others, but it was also a top tier one.

'No wonder nobles are so wary of giving spells to outsiders. My battle prowess doubled with one darkness spell.'

He was finally understanding the advantage of belonging to a rare element.

Noah spent another week traveling at high speed.

He would run during the day, train in the rune for one hour, and then sleep, he did nothing else in that period.

When he felt that he had distanced himself enough from the Shosti's domain, he decided that it was time to sort the items in his space-rings.

He found a deep uninhabited cavern and sat at its bottom.

One body after another appeared in front of him as he inspected them and then threw them away in a corner.

A nauseous smell began to fill the cavern but Noah simply continued in his process.

The guards had nothing valuable, he couldn't take their armors since they were a signature of his origins and they had no storage methods.

Only their weapons seemed somewhat good so he chose to keep them.

Trevor's weapon and his reward were one tier higher in quality, especially the spear with inscriptions on it so Noah didn't hesitate to store them.

'It's time for the nobles.'

Noah's eyes lit up as the shiny items entered his field of view.

Fabian and Neil didn't have a space-ring but their weapons seemed amazing.

He tried to look for the item that created the protective membrane but there was nothing that resembled it.

Since he only had Neil's body, he inspected it carefully until he found a strange cracked pendant with runes on it.

'It should be this thing but it appears broken. Now that I think about it, Lena's ring survived my black smoke so why the protective items didn't?'

He had some theories but he knew too little to be sure.

He threw Neil's two halves and broken pendant in the corner with the other bodies and moved to Lena's space-ring.

She made her whip explode so the ring was the only valuable thing left from her.

Noah used his mental energy to inspect the space on the inside but he felt a wall blocking his probing.

Some runes illuminated on its surface.

'Is it protected? What if I destroy the inscriptions?'

His mental energy continued to assault the wall while black smoke rose from the hand that was holding the item.

The runes began to corrode until the ring was near its breaking point.

Then, the wall crumbled and his mental energy was free to inspect its interiors.

Dozens of bottles and pills were inside with a small scroll and some change of clothes.

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Noah decided to transfer everything except the clothes in his space-ring and then he threw Lena's cracked ring between the corpses.

He had then one empty deposit and one with things to evaluate.

'I have to take care of these things first.'

He looked in the corner of the cave where the dead bodies were amassed.

He neared the pile and his mental energy began to deplete as he stretched his arm toward it.

Black smoke came out of his hand and engulfed the corpses.

As everything in the corner was consumed by his spell, Noah analyzed its effects.

'The corrosion is indeed stronger if the distance between me and the smoke is small. Assea.'

His blood companion came out from his other hand and Noah concentrated.

Even more mental energy was expended as the body of the snake was being covered by the black smoke.

Initially, it seemed that Assea's body was becoming stronger but then it rejected the empowerment and started to corrode.

Noah stopped the spell and retracted his blood companion while shaking his head.

'Assea can't endure the Demonic form, it should be because its core it's from a magical beast of the earth element.'

He was eager to change his companion and that's why Assea's figure in his sea of consciousness remained slightly cracked.

He wasn't prioritizing fixing it since it was still somewhat usable.

The black smoke made everything in the corner vanish and Noah decided to find another hideout to sort the rest of the items, that cavern had become too smelly.

About thirty minutes later, he was sitting on a large branch of one of the trees.

As he went deeper in the forest the trees had become larger, he found trunks longer than two hundred meters along the way.

'Everything is bigger in this world, harnessing "Breath" gives every living being a limitless potential apparently. Such a miraculous power, I wonder how things really were in my previous world. Maybe the "Breath" there was so thin that it couldn't be noticed.'

From time to time he would still compare the development of humans in his two different lives.

Sure, his previous world created deadly weapons on a daily basis but could it have resisted the endless incursions of magical beasts?

'Personal power it's always superior to the collective one of societies or governments. The King of the valley could have single-handedly destroyed entire cities.'

He shook his head and focused again on the items, a small scroll appeared in his hands.

'Surging river, water spell, rank up to the fourth, creates a perpetual flow of water at high pressure that crushes the target.'

'Up to rank 4? Is it the limits of the strength of the magic spell? My education really is shallow.'

He put the scroll back in the ring and took out the silver sabers.

These weapons were new a couple of weeks before but they had already been slightly blunted in the single battle that he had fought.

Noah injected his "Breath" on them and the green inscriptions lightened up.

The dents and the corroded parts began to fix themselves and in five minutes the sabers were as good as new.

'This is almost miraculous! I guess that Eccentric Thunder gave these blades to me because he knew of the disadvantages of the Demonic form.'

He was the only one immune to the black smoke of the spell, his weapons suffered from the same corrosion that everything else it touched experienced, even if in a weaker way.

'It is because I don't want to damage them that they were degraded so scarcely. I wonder if there is a way to avoid it like it should be possible with the blood companion.'

He sheathed the sabers and took out the last item in need of inspection.

The reagent and the Earth pill were one-time-use items and didn't need any control, their usage was pretty straightforward.

The potions and pills from Lena's inventory were all sorted in an ordinate way with their explanation, their usage was essentially battle oriented, consisting of raising momentarily the healing process of a determined center of power.

However, the scroll that he took out was of vital importance to Noah at the moment.

'Dark vortex, rank 2 cultivation technique, restricted to darkness element. Cultivating at night will speed the accumulation of "Breath".'

On the scroll, there was only this explanation and the descriptions of the respiration forms.

'With this technique, the Earth pill, and the reagent, my road to the rank 2 dantian will be smooth. He really thought of everything.'

Noah smiled a little thinking about the old man with the giant hat.

'I wonder why did he have that much stuff unfitting for his element, such a strange character.'

The sun was still up but he decided to give a try to the technique.

He crossed his legs and joined his hands to form a circle where is dantian was.

A drop of his liquid "Breath" was consumed to ignite a vortex at the center of the circle.

"Breath" began to gather inside the spinning spiral coloring it in black.

It seemed that the drop that he used attracted the "Breath" of its same kind.

Since the "Breath" had not to be filtered before entering the dantian, the accumulation process was faster and smoother.

During the meditation, the vortex abruptly enlarged and rotated at a faster speed, needless to say, even the quantity of "Breath" embodied was higher.

Noah was surprised and opened his eyes.

He noticed that the sun had set and the night had come.

'To think that there was actually such an increase in effectiveness! Cultivating during the day feels like a waste now.'

He calculated in his mind for a bit and believed that if he meditated every night during the time the sky was dark, he could reach the limits of the liquid stage in less than two years.

'I've decided. I will spend my nights cultivating and my mornings between the training on second Kesier rune and my sleep. As I wake up, I will repeat some forms and then proceed toward Ebonrest city during the afternoon.'

He had still four months before the test of the academy and he wanted to increase his strength now that he had the means and the time to train.

'I should also search for a rank 3 darkness-type beast since I'm at it.'

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Days passed and Noah's journey became dull.

He spent most of his time awake training while he marched only during the afternoons.

He liked this kind of life though, his strength was increasing steadily and having escaped from the clutches of the family left him with a sense of freedom.

The only problem remained his blood companion.

Since he only traveled under the daylight his chances to encounter a rank 3 darkness beast were low.

However, that didn't mean that there was a scarcity of magical beasts.

Noah was standing on one of the branches of the trees around him.

He was slowly eating a meal while watching the battle below him.

Two peak rank 3 beasts were fighting to the death on the ground, probably they were deciding to which one that territory belonged to.

One was a black bear-type beast of which Noah didn't know the name while the other one was a Thunder wolf.

The wolf used its speed and ranged attacks to continuously hurt the opponent but the vitality of the bear was immense, it endured every lightning bolt that arrived at him.

'The bear is probably an earth element magical beast, its defenses are awesome. If it catches the wolf once, the battle will be over.'

Everything happened as Noah predicted.

The Thunder wolf went too close to the bear that abruptly jumped toward it.

Its four meters frame stomped the wolf reducing its body into a pulp of flesh and blood.

'Wolf-type magical beasts are generally stronger in packs while the bear is a solitary being. It was stupid to fight it one versus one.'

He shook his head and resumed its trip.

More days passed but of the darkness-type magical beasts, there were no traces.

The shape of a mountain became visible as he neared Ebonrest city.

'That's Shelfan Mountain, maybe I've been too paranoid in speeding for two weeks straight. Not even a month has passed but I'm already here.'

He didn't want to return to the human society so soon.

'I guess I'll slow down a bit more. I don't want to stay in the open for more than necessary.'

The more time he spent among other people the more it was possible that someone discovered him.

After all, the events in the separate dimension were still recent, it was better to hide for the time being.

'I need to explore during the night, my strength is increasing too much for Assea to continue to be useful.'

Even against Lena, the only usage that his blood companion had was to gain time to let Noah fight versus fewer people at the same time.

'In the academy, the cultivators will all be disgustingly rich or highly talented, I can't go unprepared.'

He started that night with his research.

He stopped his meditation during the darkest hour and explored his surroundings.

Many different magical beasts were hunting during the night, the environment of the forest was radically diverse.

Owl-types, snake-types, spider-types, the beasts of the night were all running around searching for a prey.

Noah joined them, his eyes shone in the darkness giving him a perfect vision and he felt that his senses were sharper.

'It seems that since the darkness element is more abundant now, even my condition has become more focused.'

However, that night of exploration was unsuccessful.

Noah didn't mind too much and just repeated his research the following night.

A week passed like this and Noah still hadn't found any clue of his target.

On the seventh night, he was jumping from branch to branch paying attention to his surroundings.

He was about to stop his hunt and find a place to rest when a figure flew at high speed near him.

Noah's hand shot rapidly and grabbed the little beast.

It was a bat-type magical beast, its strength was in the middle tier of rank 1 but when Noah inspected it he felt a familiar energy coming from it.

'Darkness element!'

The bat was struggling to escape his grip but Noah just stared at it.

Then, he opened his hand and the bat immediately flew away.

Noah followed it till the beast entered a small hole in the ground.

He neared the hole and sent his mental energy inside to have an idea of its structure.

The cavity seemed to lead to an underground cavern and he sensed the presence of many life forms coming from it.

'I finally found something.'

He chose to rest near the entrance for one day in order to gather more information.

During the day, the entrance was silent and other magical beasts simply passed over it.

However, at night, some bats would come out of it and return with little victims.

When Noah saw a rank 2 bat bringing back another rank 2 magical beast, he knew what was happening.

'They are gathering food for the leader.'

He unconsciously smiled and prepared to enter the cavern during the daylight.

He speculated that these kinds of beasts rested during that time so it was the best moment to explore the cave.

The afternoon came and he directly jumped in the entrance.

He fell for about three meters before touching the ground.

In front of him, a long corridor stretched in the distance.

Noah walked along it and noticed many other holes that led to the surface.

'The number of bats that I saw was probably just a part of the swarm. That's good, it means that there is a high chance to meet their rank 3 version.'

He advanced for a few hundred meters and the first living beings began to appear.

They were mostly bat-type magical beasts but there were also few spider-type and rodent-type.

The ranks of the latter were quite low, it was obvious that a bat pack ruled that underground area.

He then reached what seemed the central point of the cavern as a wide room expanded in front of him.

The ground was empty, but on the ceiling, there were hundreds of bat-type magical beasts sleeping hanging upside down on their lower claws.

In the middle of the pack, three big figures were visible.

They had two pairs of wings and one of them was slightly bigger than the other two.

Noah could not help but smile brightly.

'Found you.'

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Noah dug a hole in the rocky corridor.

He made it two cubic meters large to be comfortable, he didn't plan on to leave it any time soon.

He resumed his usual training schedule, waiting in the darkness of the hole for a bat to pass by.

When the night arrived and the leader sent the order, the hundreds of rank 1 and rank 2 beasts of its pack left the central area and moved to the surface.

One of the rank 2 specimens felt its body being squeezed and was dragged into one of the cavities of the corridor.

Noah directly stabbed the beast on its chest, killing it on the spot, no one of its pack noticed its disappearance.

Noah carefully looked at the bat, giving importance to the details of its body.

He took out Uriah's diary and opened it where the sketches were.

After evaluating a bit in his mind, he began to draw on the ground the image of the dead bat in front of him.

He continued to draw during the whole night and when the pack came back and went to sleep, he came out of his cavity to have a better vision of the biggest bat at the center of the group.

He drew its form on the ground and repeated the process until the night came again.

He spent one week practicing in the figure of the bat in order to be ready to start the procedure as soon as he gathered the materials from its body.

On the eighth day, he was ready.

He waited for the pack to go in its hunting and exited the hole he made.

The two silver sabers were held tightly in his hands.

His torso was already uncovered and the image of a snake moved freely on its chest.

On the ceiling of the large underground room, tens of rank 2 bats were still in guard around the three big specimens of their pack.

Noah ingress in the area alerted the group which began to launch sound attacks to him.

He immediately deployed Assea around him to weaken the vibrations of the attack.

Their shockwaves couldn't pass the ethereal body of the snake and were blocked.

The bats screeched seeing that their offensive had no effect but they were stopped by tens of black wind slashes that came toward them.

Corpses and injured bodies fell from the ceiling, creating a noise that woke up the three bigger specimens.

The three screeched loudly aiming for the black snake.

Assea's body cracked in many points and some vibration hit Noah that began to bleed from his ears.

However, instead of being angry about the damage that he suffered, his expression appeared incredibly happy.

'Two rank 3 upper tier and one peak stage!'

He had confirmed that the bigger bat was precisely what he was in need of.

'Demonic form.'

Assea's body returned inside his body showing a fiendish figure from which black smoke was constantly released.

Noah shot more slashes covered in smoke.

The blows hit more beasts on the ceiling and released the corrosive smoke in the upper area of the underground room.

The pack began to scream in pain and its members were forced to descend on the ground to escape the toxic cloud.

Noah didn't waste any time and jumped at the three rank 3 bats that flew down.

One of the smaller ones was directly stabbed by him, the black smoke expanded from where the saber was and devoured its body in a few seconds.

A beast in the upper tier of rank 3 was killed in few instants!

The pack went crazy seeing that one of their group died so easily and began to disperse, however, their speed was inferior to Noah in the Demonic form.

He was already over the other rank 3 bat as he slashed at him.

The head of the bat was divided in two and its upper body was consumed by the smoke that his sabers released.

The leader understood that it could not escape and turned to send another powerful screech in his direction.

The armor made of smoke trembled but absorbed the vibrations, only some slight damage was done to his internal organs.

Noah jumped and pressed his body on the bat.

The beast screamed in pain as the smoke surrounding him consumed its body.

However, the smoke retracted almost instantly and the figure of a young human was visible tightly hanging on its body.

The bat was about to attack but it found out that it could not make a sound, a blade was deeply stabbed in its throat.

The beast was hovering in the air and fell on the ground after a few violent struggles.

As life left its body, Noah put it in the empty space-ring and ran away from the underground cavern.

Once on the surface, he continued to run until he found a large tree with a big hole in its trunk.

The insides were six meters large and tall three, Noah nodded seeing the place and took out the bat corpse.

He put a large bowl under its throat and took out the blade from it.

Blood began to flow, filling the bowl.

A bottle then appeared in front of him and Noah directly drank it.

The mental energy that he expended in the battle was being refilled at high speed!

'As expected, Lena's potions are of top quality!'

When the bowl surpassed the amount of blood required for the procedure by one-fold, Noah opened the bat's chest.

He took out the heart of the beast and put it inside the space-ring together with the body.

He then sat on the ground to concentrate on filling the blood in the bowl with his "Breath".

As he was in the liquid stage, the process took less than the last time and in only half a day the blood had reached the required standards.

He smiled seeing the dense dark liquid and put it in the space-ring too.

He was eager to create a new blood companion but he had to make room for one first.

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Inside Noah's sea of consciousness.

Noah's half-transparent figure had one hand over Assea's cracked image.

His eyes were closed and his brows were knitted, he seemed immersed in a complex process.

Shards of Assea's image began to detach from its figure and feel in the sea.

Little by little, the snake form in Noah's mental sphere crumbled until there was nothing left in its place.

Noah opened his eyes and the snake tattoo on his chest rejected the blood of the Horned snake, expelling it from the body.

Of his blood companion, only a wound remained.

Noah took out a bottle and a pill from his space-ring, one helped to restore his mental energy while the other increased the healing speed of his injuries.

He had suffered some damage from the bat pack and the process of killing the blood companion left him in a tired state.

He meditated to help the medicines do their work and noticed that his mind was clearer than ever.

Without the drawback of the spell from the Assea family, his sea of consciousness felt extremely light.

'It won't last much longer.'

Noah thought and picked a cask full of water from his space-ring.

He washed neatly to prevent any contamination and then put everything away, taking out the bowl full of dense blood.

It was time to begin!

He focused and immersed his saber in the bowl and started drawing on his chest the outline of the rank 3 bat.

Then it was time for the details: four fangs, pointy ears, four clawed paws, two eyes on the sides of the head with one in the middle, and two pairs of wings.

A sort of pressure exuded from the drawing while Noah nodded in satisfaction.

A small heart appeared in his hand, it was the size of one and a half fists.

The rank 3 bat was smaller than the Horned snake, it was only three meters tall so it was natural for its organs to be tinier.

Noah took two rapid bites and swallowed the heart, the drawing's temperature began to rise till Noah felt his chest burning.

This time though he was prepared.

His eyes were already closed and focusing on his sea of consciousness.

His ethereal figure had his eyes opened waiting for the bat image to appear.

When it materialized, it acted in the same way as the Horned snake the previous time: it went berserk and moved at high speed toward the sphere with the intention of breaking it.

However, the first Kesier rune hummed, followed by the faint form of the second one.

The beast fell on the sea screeching in pain and Noah followed it.

In a few minutes, the figure of the bat formed over the sea at the center of the sphere.

The pressure generated by the sharing of their senses returned and pressed on the walls of the sea of consciousness.

Noah was about to exit his mental sphere when the roots wrapped around the first Kesier rune shot out and entangled themselves around the bat.

'I knew it!'

He could feel from his connection with the new blood companion that it could enter the Demonic form without rejections!

He opened his material eyes and stood up, the tattoo of the bat moved a bit over his body to then stop on his back.

'It seems more alive than Assea, does it depend on the fact that we are of the same element?'

He summoned it in front of him.

The bat was quite lifelike, it had the same size as the original beast which reassured Noah on the success of the process.

'Attack me.'

As usual, Noah wanted to test its abilities.

The bat didn't hesitate and screeched in his direction, Noah spat out a mouthful of blood while his liquid "Breath" was consumed to fuel the ability.

He hastily made it stop and stared with wide eyes at his new companion.

'It can use its innate abilities? But that wasn't specified in Uriah's diary.'

He sat on the floor and focused on healing his injuries, the sound attack had hurt him internally.

He didn't use the potions this time as he wasn't in a hurry, previously he had used them afraid that the ingredients for the spell could have been wasted.

He tested some more times and confirmed that the bat could use all the abilities that he had when it was alive.

'Is it because my element is the same? It makes sense after all, only the body changed while its instincts and its "Breath" remained the same. Anyway, it definitely kept the strength of a peak rank 3 beast.'

He tested some more and activated the Demonic form on it.

Black smoke was released from its body and its power rose visibly but Noah's mental energy was depleted at an even higher speed than when he used that spell for himself.

'However, its weakness is removed when it enters that form.'

Since the bat was smaller than Assea, it could just cover an area of a few meters around Noah.

However, when it activated the Demonic form, the black smoke would work as a connection between Noah's body and the blood companion, vastly increasing its area of action.

'So this is the true power of the Body-inscription spell, wonderful, my battle prowess increased again.'

He looked at the bat for a while and then nodded.

'I'll call you Echo, now let's see if you can make me fly.'

Flying not only was extremely useful to travel, but it could also be used as a way to run away from a dangerous situation.

If he had had that ability back in Twilboia Cliff, he would have never faced the rank 5 snake.

His expectations were not met as he discovered that he could at best use Echo's body to float and not properly fly.

Black smoke covered again the companion's body and Noah entered it.

This time it could fly for a period but its speed was nothing special and the expenditure of mental energy was immense.

'It seems that the body created through the spell is flawed in this aspect, or maybe it's because my "Breath" is only in the liquid stage, or probably because bat-type magical beasts aren't that skillful in flight in general. I'll do more tests later on, now I should rest.'

He decided to return to the empty trunk and slept.

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Noah was standing on the ground with his eyes closed.

His torso was naked and, on his back, two pairs of black wings were opened wide.

Then, black smoke engulfed the wings and they began to flap at an even rhythm.

Noah's body slowly rose in the air until it reached five meters of altitude.

Noah stayed in the air for a while before carefully alighting back on the ground.

He heaved a long breath while retracting the wings.

'This is as much as I can do for now, humans don't seem too fit for flight.'

In this period of time, he stopped his trip to continue testing his ability to fly.

However, even if he managed to rise in the air, his aerial control was lacking.

Humans were beings that walked on the ground, the sky wasn't their domain.

They didn't have the innate instincts of a flying beast so Noah could only put more training in that field to solve the issue.

'There is also the problem of the mental energy's consumption. Damn, if I hadn't lost more than one year of training stuck in the inner circle now things would be smoother.'

He shook his head and returned to his position on the tree branch.

Since he could not obtain back his wasted time he would just train more!

His mental energy had become his main focus since his strongest spell heavily depended on it.

Noah decided to resume his travel with an even harder training schedule.

His nights were completely devoted to the cultivation technique, while during the morning he pushed his limits on the second Kesier rune.

He would then sleep for a few hours and train his flight as he woke up.

He spent the rest of the time marching toward Shelfan Mountain.

More weeks passed.

Noah's escape had occurred almost two months ago by then as he arrived at the base of the mountain.

In this month and a half of strenuous training, all his centers of power except for the body had become stronger.

He exuded a cold and sharp aura which seemed denser in contrast to his previous state.

He chose to put his weapons inside the space-ring in order to prevent any resemblance with his former figure from being displayed.

His head was covered with a black hood as he gazed at the rocky slope of the mountain.

'On the other side, there is Ebonrest city. The peak of the mountain is classified as a danger zone but its path is inhabited by small villages that live of mining precious minerals. There should be even a public market along the way, maybe I should accumulate some money before arriving at the city.'

He stood still, reviewing the knowledge he accumulated when he set his escape routes.

He possessed a lot of weapons that he had no use of and since he never had to worry about buying anything, he had no idea about the prices of this world.

He began to climb the mountain.

As Noah moved along its path, many simple houses began to appear in the environment.

The inhabitants were mostly men with a skinny complexion, they seemed to be on the verge of starving to death as they carried heavy pickaxes on their shoulders.

Noah ignored them and they did the same with him, there wasn't much cordiality around that place.

He encountered many of these settlements as he continued to move forward and the situation of the residents was the same every time.

'I guess that they are exploited by the family managing the market, I don't sense any cultivator among them so they can only be used for manual labor. I believe that many of them won't survive for much longer.'

The society worked in the same way as the noble families: weak people were exploited to enrich the already powerful ones.

When he was nearing the market, he saw with his mental energy that some of the healthier men stared at him whispering between themselves.

'Considering my luck, this will lead to trouble.'

Of course, he was right.

As soon as he moved for a few kilometers away from the last village he passed through, a group of men with some rusty weapons blocked his path.

Noah recognized one of the villagers among the group and noticed a couple of cultivators between them.

However, he felt no sense of danger at all looking at them.

The man in the middle of the group was tall and wielded a big hammer with both his hands.

He stepped forward toward Noah and spoke with an intimidating voice.

"You, leave all the valuable items in your possession and we will let you live."

Noah sighed and shook his head, he put his hand inside his clothes and materialized one of the weapons of the Lansay family.

After taking it out, he raised it in the air in front of him to show it to the thieves.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, how much is this one worth?"

The men were a bit surprised by his young voice but then their eyes lit up seeing the good manufacture of the weapon.

"Haha! That's a good blade! What else do you have?"

'Are they stupid or simply blinded by their hunger?'

How could be possible that a young man traveled alone in this part of the mountain during this period of time?

'I thought that they would have understood something from my voice at least.'

He shook his head again.

"Listen, I need a guide for the market. I can promise some rewards if you do a good job so why don't you drop this act? With your meager strength, you could at best defeat a rank 2 magical beast."

The men's eyes widened again hearing his words.

Laughter began to spread in the group but the cultivators exchanged a concerned stare between each other.

Noah had evaluated their battle prowess quite accurately and that put the cultivators on guard of the young man.

They stared at Noah in silence trying to decide their course of action.

Noah, however, was already at the limits of his patience.

If it was a normal situation, he wouldn't have hesitated to teach these weaklings a memorable lesson but he was doing his best to avoid creating any trace of his passage.

He focused and a pressure began to radiate from his figure which silenced the thieves who raised their weapons in fear.

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The group of thieves was hesitating and only then they linked Noah's unusual presence with the academy's entrance test.

They weren't sure that they could gain anything using forceful methods.

The cultivator that seemed in the lead stepped further and slightly bowed.

"If you can give my brothers fifteen pieces of gold, I will gladly be your guide."

'So, they finally understood something.'

Noah oscillated his weapon in the air and pointed at it with his free hand.

"You still have to tell me how much this is worth."

The leader looked at it from the distance for a bit and then answered.

"I'm not an expert, but its value should be around five pieces of gold."

'I have more than thirty of these which makes it one hundred and fifty gold.'

He thought for a few seconds and then nodded.

The leader was about to cheer when Noah continued.

"However, you will receive the payment after you help me sell my items."

The leader complained but Noah jumped at high speed and appeared in front of him.

No one of the men saw him moving, his speed was too fast for these common people.

He tossed the weapon to one of the men nearby.

"Take this as a warranty. You, let's move."

Noah pointed at the leader and moved past the blockage.

The men looked at each other for a moment and then the leader followed behind the young man.

They walked for three days, resting only at night.

In the afternoon of the third day, they reached the market area on the mountain.

"This is Toottac town, young master. The market is the main form of sustenance of the city and many merchants had set up their stands in this period due to the academy's test. You might not know but many nobles will make a trip here before the test begins."

In the previous days, Noah had briefly spoken with the tall man in order to learn more information about that area and to set some rules for their interaction.

The man's name was Grant and Noah didn't reveal anything about his situation but simply ordered to be referred to as "young master".

Grant also explained the general situation of the area, focusing on the large-size noble family that ruled Ebonrest city.

The family was called Voydol and apparently, it had a really amicable relationship with the Elbas dynasty, which was the reason why one of the test areas was there.

"Why didn't they put their stands directly in Ebonrest city? This is just a peripherical city after all, how could they attract the noble families here?"

Grant's answer was immediate.

"Young master, Ebonrest city will be completely reserved for the preparations of the Royal family. In this period of time, all the main shops in the city had moved here. It is common knowledge among the noble houses by now."

Grant then realized that he might have inadvertently offended him but it seemed that the young man didn't even listen to him.

'Nobles... I bet that many of them will create problems for the lonely cultivators like me.'

The test was a matter of personal ability but that wouldn't stop the families behind the participants to scheme before its beginning.

He was familiar with the mindset of the nobles so he could vaguely imagine the methods that they would use to increase the advantages of their descendants.

'I bet that they will at least try to eliminate as many variables as they can. I don't believe that they will simply let someone with no status take the first place in the trial. They would lose too much face.'

Noah turned toward Grant.

"Am I right to assume that even the families that will buy their ingress will send their descendants into the trial?"

Grant nodded.

"Yes, not only they will spare an immense quantity of resources if the heir succeeds, but they would also want to show the strength of their new generations. It is a demonstration of the future power of their family after all."

Noah returned to look at the town.

Its perimeter was empty, with just some lazy guard drinking wine on tables near the path.

However, Noah could sense the liveliness of the city in its insides.

"Let's go."

He stopped thinking about things he could not control and moved along the path, Grant hastily followed behind.

When they were about to enter the boundary though, one of the guards yelled from his seat.

"Hey, you two! The ingress to the town is one piece of gold each! Don't make me st-"

His words were interrupted by a metallic item that crashed on the table and directly broke it in pieces.

All the guards there stood up scared and looked at the weapon.

It was an ax of excellent manufacture, they knew that its value surpassed five pieces of gold.

They turned to look at the two men walking down the city path.

The hooded one was already walking past the entrance while the tall one was awkwardly scratching his head, making a bow in excuse.

"I'm sorry but the young master is tired, I hope that the ax can cover for the damage and our ingress."

One of the guards slowly nodded, a cold drop of sweat ran down his forehead.

Grant bowed again and followed Noah that was already far ahead in the city.

The guards looked at each other and whispered.

"I think we should go easy on the wine in this period."

"Agreed, if we offend someone with an even worse temper, I believe that we could really get unlucky."

"Yes, yes, wise words. If we are drunk and a noble gets annoyed by us, we are done for."

From that day onward, the guards of Toottac town were never found drunk again.

Meanwhile, Noah continued to walk rapidly toward the stands that became visible in the distance.

He threw the weapon as a show of strength, he knew that there would usually be an inspection every time a stranger entered a town so he decided to act as an irritated noble.

As for the money loss, he really couldn't care less if that granted him anonymity.

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After walking the main road of the city for a while, Noah began to see the various stands.

There were tens of merchants with flashy banners on top of their stalls and even more people around them looking at their items.

Noah looked around for a bit and noticed something strange: the customers used two different types of currencies.

He turned to face Grant and pointed at the gems that some of the customers were using.

"What are those?"

Grant looked where he was pointing and showed a confused expression.

"You mean the Obsidian Credits?"

Noah shrugged his shoulders and replied.

"If that's what they are called. What value do they have?"

Grant's eyes widened as he continued to stare at Noah.

"What?"

It took a while for Grant to really believe that Noah didn't know anything about it.

"Aren't you a cultivator?"

Noah replied with a bit of annoyance in his voice.

"Stop asking questions and explain."

Grant cleared his voice and began to speak.

"The Obsidian Credits, or commonly called Credits, are the currency mainly used by cultivators. It's a peculiar crystal that is filled with "Breath" so it has more value in the cultivator's minds. Anything regarding cultivation can only be bought with Credits, no one will ever accept gold for it."

Noah focused again on the gems, they resembled the one that Virginia used to power up the inheritance ground, only less shining.

'To think that I wasn't aware of such things…'

"Do they come only in that form?"

Grant nodded and explained more.

"Form? Yes. Value? No. Based on their brilliance, which is the quantity of "Breath" stored inside, they have more value. The ones that you see here are worth one Credit but there are crystals valued ten, fifty, and even one hundred Credits!"

Noah turned to Grant and could not help but ask:

"Why do you want to be paid in gold then?"

Grant smiled awkwardly.

"Well, I am a simple rank 1 cultivator with a rank 2 body, I don't even have a martial art. I just want to feed my family and the ones of my brothers."

'So, selling the weapons can only give me money to buy food and a place to rest. I have the Surging river spell which should be worth some Credits but I don't know if it's better to sell it now or to keep it for a better use in the academy.'

He didn't know enough to decide the best course of action so he just chose to inspect the market further.

"Bring me to someone that can buy the weapons that I showed you."

Grant took the lead position and they moved slowly around the city.

Noah soon noted that calling it "city" was a bit of a stretch.

The city itself consisted of a few buildings with two taverns and ten hostels, all the other structures were simply subsidiary shops that opened while Ebonrest city was busy with the preparations for the test.

In the end, they arrived at a small wooden house with the picture of a sword and a shield as a banner.

Grant entered and loudly greeted the bald man behind the cash desk.

"Kirk! I brought you a customer!"

Kirk snorted and replied with a rough voice.

"You only bring them when you gain something out of it."

Grant laughed awkwardly and scratched the side of his head.

Noah couldn't be bothered to watch them argue and stepped toward the desk laying a blade on it.

"I'm here to sell, how much for this?"

Kirk was surprisingly quite professional as he picked the weapon and carefully examined it.

He even slid his palm along the blade twice to check if there was any dent on it.

When the process was over, he nodded in satisfaction.

"Not bad, not bad. I can give you six pieces of gold for this one."

Noah nodded and continued.

"What if I have more than thirty of the same manufacture?"

The two men's eyes widened when they heard the number of weapons in his possession.

Kirk coughed a bit and then cleared his voice.

"I would need to inspect each one of them."

Noah made a gesture with his hand and the thirty or so weapons appeared on the ground.

In his space-ring, the weapons that remained were his two pairs of sabers, the descendants' inscribed weapons, and the lance that Trevor obtained from the second stage.

Kirk stared at him for a few instants before he started examining the items.

'It's not his first time seeing a space-ring.'

Noah thought and then began to think of how to dispose of his remaining goods.

'I should wait with the spell, maybe the academy can give me something more valuable than money for it. The noble's weapons have to remain hidden so they are better in the space-ring than wielded by someone. Lena's potions are useful so I should just keep them. The Earth pill and the reagent are necessary for my cultivation so it's not even worth mentioning them. My old sabers can be a clue for my identity so it's best to keep them. I'd rather not sell techniques that I currently use, so Dark vortex and Body-inscription are excluded. That leaves me with the lance and Echo's previous body.'

He faced Grant and asked with a plain voice.

"Is it possible to sell magical beast's bodies here?"

Grant nodded and smiled.

"I can bring you to a friend of mine that will buy it for a good price. If it is adequately intact, he might even pay you with Credits."

'He will pay me in gold then.'

Noah was sure that the body of the rank 3 beast was far from the standards of Grant's friend.

Kirk had, by then, finished his inspection and had put and hand under his chin, he was immersed in his thoughts.

Then he spoke without changing his posture.

"Thirty-three weapons of high quality. Sadly, more than twenty of them had been used previously so their price will lower. What do you think of one hundred and sixty gold for all the goods?"

Noah didn't hesitate.

"Deal."

Kirk hurriedly opened a secret compartment and took out three bags from it.

He handed them to Noah who simply inspected them with his mental energy before storing them.

Kirk was all smiles after the transaction was over and had his hands clasped together when he spoke with Noah.

"Tell me if I can be useful with anything else."

Noah thought briefly and then replied.

"Do you know of a place that might buy an inscribed weapon?"

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Noah was walking on the streets of Toottac town playing with two shining crystals in his hand.

'To think that he would actually give me two Credits for the three-eyed bat's body. Hunting rank 3 magical beasts can be quite lucrative.'

Grant had taken him to someone that traded in magical beast's body parts and Noah not only learnt the species of his blood companion but he also made some gains.

'He gave me two Credits for its fangs and its third eye, added to three hundred gold for the rest of the body. He said that a completely intact body of a rank 3 beast can be worth between twenty to fifty Credits depending on the type. I might really think about gaining money that way.'

Noah had no difficulty in hunting rank 3 beasts, the only problem was keeping their corpses intact.

'I will think about that once inside the academy, now I should first sell the spear.'

He had already sent Grant away and gave him his pay.

Not even a day has passed but Noah had already disregarded the value of the pieces of gold.

As a cultivator, accumulating that currency was simply too easy.

Noah first bought some provisions to refill the ones that he used during his escape and then went to the shop that Kirk mentioned.

When he arrived at the pointed area, a two-story wooden building presented itself in front of Noah.

'Solomon's inscription shop'

'This Solomon is, apparently, an inscription master from the Voydol family. He opened a shop to increase the status of his noble family and to gain their acceptance. He should be an outsider and not a family member.'

Kirk mentioned that this illustrious man had graduated from the academy where he learnt the art of inscriptions and then joined the Voydol family to have a stable foothold for his work.

Noah moved toward the entrance door of the shop but two guards blocked his entrance.

They were both cultivators and Noah sensed that they were on the same level as Kevin.

"Five pieces of gold to enter."

'They really are from a large-size noble family to have this kind of guards to stand in front of a subsidiary store.'

Noah smiled from behind his hood and took out the sum.

"No problem at all, but may I know why is there an ingress tax?"

The guards became more amicable once they saw that he had a space-ring and explained briefly while leaving open the passage.

"Non-cultivators are interested in the items useful to cultivators. If Lord Solomon didn't put a price for the entrance, there would have been a crowd of peasants admiring the goods."

Noah nodded, he agreed with their explanation, and then entered the shop.

Inside, many different inscribed items were exposed but no other customer was present.

There weren't only weapons, but also pendants, scrolls, armors, and so on.

Noah immediately understood that this was the right place, yet his eyes could not help but widen when he saw the prices of the goods.

'Three hundred Credits is the lowest price that I can see! And that armor is priced ten thousand Credits!'

"Sir, may I help you?"

A lovely female voice rang out from behind him.

Noah turned and saw a young woman wearing a tight red dress that greatly emphasized her curves.

'Did they put this beauty here to confuse the customers?'

He shook his head internally and replied shortly.

"I'm here to sell a weapon."

The smile of the attendant diminished in brilliance but it was still kept on her face.

"I would have to inspect the weapon before suggesting a price. The shop will try to make the best possible offer but we will take five percent of the total sum as a payment for our service."

Noah simply took out the spear from the space-ring and handed it to the woman.

As she inspected the weapon, he inspected her.

'Is she stronger than me? I feel that her "Breath" is more concentrated. Maybe she reached the solid stage, I wonder if I could fight against a solid stage cultivator in my Demonic form.'

The attendant misjudged his attentions and her smile widened a little but then it froze as she continued to examine the spear.

She stood up and cleared her throat.

"I need to call my Master, the quality of these inscriptions quite surpasses my ability."

Noah nodded and waited patiently for the woman to climb the stairs to the first floor.

She came back after a few minutes accompanied by a middle-aged man with no beard and long curly hair.

Her gaze was lowered and Noah remembered that he had to show some respect to the cultivator.

He politely bowed and greeted him.

"It's an honor to meet Master Solomon."

Solomon nodded and his expression became more friendly.

He picked up the lance that had been left on the desk and began to examine it.

Sometimes he would mumble with himself while he looked at the lines inscribed.

When he was done, he raised his head to look at the hooded young man.

"Where did you get this?"

Noah shrugged his shoulders and replied casually.

"Somewhere, I don't remember specifically."

Solomon didn't mind his answer too much and lowered his gaze again on the weapon.

"Are you sure you don't want to exchange it? I have a lot of protective items on sale, you might need them during the entrance test."

'Oh, what a smart man.'

Noah was a bit surprised.

His voice was still the one of a young man so it wasn't impossible to deduce his purpose in the city.

'I feel that he is even stronger than Kevin, are there that many strong people in this world? I really need to enter the academy.'

However, he shook his head at Solomon's offer.

"I'm sorry, but I'm still not sure of what I'm in need right now. I'd rather take the Credits and think about it. In the future, I will surely spend them here to buy Master Solomon's products."

The woman was surprised to see such courtesy by him.

After all, Noah continuously exuded a cold aura due to the imposing presence of his mental sphere.

All mages had a peculiar aura around them.

Solomon's one, for example, was casual and uncaring and became focused only when he inspected the item.

Solomon nodded and smiled.

"Good answer! I can give you one thousand Credits for this weapon."

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