Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah didn't recklessly approach his project. He probably was the best expert in the entire world regarding reckless training methods, but he had friends that surpassed him in many fields.

King Elbas' knowledge about inscription methods had never stopped increasing, and his growth had even quickened exponentially after remaining in the city for so long. He was the first expert that Noah sough, but his answers weren't conclusive.

"The breakthrough to the ninth rank is too personal to have opinions, especially for existences who wield higher energy,"

"It's a matter of harmony, but I can't be certain without enough data,"

"Why would anyone even try to reach the ninth rank with centers of power so close to the breakthrough?"

King Elbas mostly offered complaints and doubts. His approach to the matter was purely scientific. He wanted to study data, tests, results and apply them to multiple existences before giving an opinion. It seemed that his law didn't allow him to rely on vague statements. Only truths could come out of his mouth, so he never gave proper answers.

Still, the conversation with the expert brought Noah's focus on a field that he had almost chosen to ignore. The ninth rank required an additional center of power with an ethereal nature, and Noah felt confident that he needed something similar for the breakthrough of his mind to work.

Noah couldn't apply his old and barbaric methods to his current level. The divine ranks wanted more than simple increases of power, even if his existence was ready to reach the ninth rank.

That restriction forced Noah to study the actual rules for the ninth rank before deciding how to break them. Yet, the maximum expert in that field that he could think of was unreliable at best. He even wondered whether that complicated existence was already trying to betray his trust.

"Do you want the secret behind the ninth rank?" The old rulers repeated Noah's question while the two existences sat inside the white separate area. "We thought you already knew it."

"I don't want to know how to reach the ninth rank," Noah explained. "I need to understand the requirements for the breakthrough from a purely technical perspective. Why do existences need a separate center of power? How necessary is it to have your entire existence near the peak to approach the transformation?"

Noah tried to remain vague with his questions to the old rulers, but they always managed to look through him. It was hard to deal with such strange entities, especially since they didn't think according to the standards usually involving other existences.

"You ask bizarre questions for someone who is preparing a breakthrough," The old rulers revealed as a faint smile appeared on their featureless face. "Don't think that we overlooked the increasing requests for resources. Why would you even need so many Kesier runes otherwise?"

"Let's not talk about this," Noah ordered. "I want to know more about the topic to see how impossible my project is."

"It's quite impossible," The old rulers revealed. "These limits don't come from Heaven and Earth. They are something that the world naturally activates as a response to your existence. It's a defensive method aimed to preserve your power."

"But it's a normal limit, right?" Noah continued. "How hard can it be to ignore it?"

"Many have tried before you," The old rulers explained. "It's not a matter of completing a partial breakthrough. It concerns preventing the ninth rank from being a failure. Your existence might be ready to advance, but your centers of power want to get there together. Having only part of them in the next rank only creates conflicts in the understanding as a whole."

The explanation made sense, but it also didn't. Noah wasn't a stranger to unbalance. He had spent most of his life with centers of power at different levels, and they had often benefitted him rather than hold him back.

However, his next breakthrough would involve matters far more complicated. The ninth rank would give him access to powers that went beyond laws, so he could vaguely guess the nature of the troubles that an unbalance could generate.

When it came to the mind, Noah could imagine how he would become unable to think about the world as an array of laws that created matter and gave it meaning. He would have a center of power striving to become a world while his dantian and body remained busy gathering fuel to reach the same state.

His mind could basically stop helping the other centers of power because it would live in a completely different realm. The premature breakthrough could force Noah to complete the rest of his growth to the ninth rank with fewer assets. He might end up cultivating without a sea of consciousness.

"We do understand how suppressing an urge can be impossible once reached that level," The old rulers continued. "We know that better than every other existence in the plane. We received countless warnings about our path in the past, but stubbornness is part of what makes us strive forward. We thought that the solution was in our grasp, but we ended up causing a war that has lasted for eras."

"Should I just stop and ignore my existence?" Noah asked. "Isn't that worse than failing at my level?"

"You are here because of your doubts," The old rulers revealed. "Part of your existence fears this approach, but receiving vague answers is only making you believe in your talent with even more intensity."

The orange figure heaved a rare sigh, and Noah felt able to sense ancient helplessness accompanying its voice. He could confirm that the old rulers had started to feel again, but that detail wasn't important now. Only the path ahead mattered.

"An existence goes through a transformation in the ninth rank," The old rulers did their best to explain the matter using the entirety of their knowledge. "It's a qualitative change that surpasses every other breakthrough. You shouldn't consider it as a simple advancement. It's a step that opens the path hidden in the universe.

"Imagine going back to the state of a mortal and restarting your cultivation journey. The experts in the ninth rank are nothing more than mortals in the system of the universe. We only caught a glimpse of that greater path, but we failed to step on in."

Those words generated waves of shock in Noah's mind. He had long since desired someone who confirmed that ranks past the ninth existed in the world. He had sworn to create new realms even if the universe's limit ended up being the tenth rank, but it seemed that he wouldn't need to do anything. The world had already solved one of his future issues.

"Now," The old rulers continued, "Imagine being a mortal without a brain, a hearth, or another vital organ. That will be your state in the ninth rank if you decide to advance with a single center of power. You would have a shell meant to be at that level but nothing able to fill it."

"The problem is in the shell then," Noah guessed.

"Your existence is like a nutrient now," The old rulers added. "You are a tree trying to give birth to fruit with the nutrients accumulated throughout your life. You can generate it early, but that would leave it in the open for who knows how long. It will surely become dry if you leave such an incomplete product in the open."