Birth of the Demonic Sword

Night had become almost untraceable after advancing in the ninth rank. It was a proper shadow that never stepped into the world but only hovered over it. Its power was more effective against Heaven and Earth, but other existences would also struggle to keep track of its movements.

However, Dinia stopped Night's charge easily. The Pterodactyl had yet to turn into its offensive form, but the expert had grabbed it without suffering any injury. The event wasn't only stunning. It felt unreasonable..

A strange thought spread in Noah's mind. He had built his power so that he could go farther than everyone else, but he had never underestimated his opponents, even when Heaven and Earth revealed nothing but incompetence.

The Immortal Lands were too vast and old to be out of options, but its rulers were a mess that didn't bother to focus their full attention on those who tried to oppose their power. That had allowed Noah and other exceptional experts to survive countless punishments and reach their monstrous state. Yet, some of them had decided to join the sky anyway and had given birth to the privileged cultivators.

Noah and his companions were incredible and unmatched in terms of potential, but the privileged cultivators could be only slightly below them in that field. After all, they had survived Heaven and Earth's attempt to learn their worlds for countless years. Those experts couldn't even come close to appearing weak.

The members of Noah's team could close the gap that separated them from average liquid stage experts while they were still at the peak of the eighth rank, but the privileged cultivators could achieve something similar. That forced him to reevaluate Dinia. The latter might only manage to be as strong as a normal solid stage cultivator, but that was already enough to put his opponents in a tough spot, even if their potential was above his.

The difference in potential didn't matter when the weaker side had a stronger foundation. Dinia couldn't cross as many ranks as Noah and the others, but he was still above them since his base level was in the liquid stage.

That realization soon dawned upon King Elbas' mind too. The expert accepted that the time to test the limits of his new power had come. Only three of them were on the scene, and they couldn't hope to receive unexpected help in the void. He could only rely on his power and two companions there, so he had to give his everything.

Sepunia's thoughts didn't need to go as deeply as her two companions. She didn't experience any realization because she already knew how strong the privileged cultivators were. That group of elite experts had different levels of power, but all of them were relatively strong.

Moreover, the privileged cultivators were existences who had the chance to cultivate and experiment freely for countless years. Their growth had inevitably slowed down after joining the sky, mostly due to the lack of dangers, but they had something else that forced them to improve. Heaven and Earth would eventually understand their worlds and turn them into simple bodies filled with mere copies of their abilities if they didn't keep advancing.

Nigh-endless time, all the resources in the world, and the chance to inspect the arrays past the sky could give the privileged cultivator everything they needed to develop numerous techniques. Growing past the level of ordinary cultivators was only normal with those assets, and those experts had even joined Heaven and Earth after becoming exceptional.

Noah couldn't even start to predict how strong Dinia was, but the idea of retreating had yet to appear in his mind. The expert was strong, but he had yet to reveal his real power.

Night found itself stuck in Dinia's grasp. The white light that it hated so much shone on its unique body without hurting its lines, but that didn't bring any relief. The Pterodactyl couldn't move at all, and its instincts even made him experience fear.

Nevertheless, a dark aura that featured countless faces soon expanded on Night's body. The Pterodactyl also used its own ambition to empower its body and made its level reach unfathomable realms.

Black lines crashed on Dinia's hand and created flickers in the light radiated by his inscriptions. Night unleashed a relentless offensive that forced the expert to take the threat seriously, but Noah and the others didn't let him focus on a single opponent.

King Elbas placed himself above Dinia and raised his spear. His robe sent scorching energy to the weapon and made it shine with a blinding golden light that managed to suppress the whiteness spreading through the void. The fight between the glows intensified when the expert let the lance fall.

Dinia was about to use his free hand on Night, but the fall of the spear forced him to raise it above his head. The weapon landed on the cultivator's palm and unleashed the massive amount of scorching energy it contained, but it spread in the void for only a few seconds.

The scorching golden glow expanded only to shrink and transform into a bright sphere restrained by the sheer power of Dinia's fingers. King Elbas' had no words to describe the event, but his opponent didn't bother explaining the nature of his power again. His hand descended as he tried to slam the golden energy on Night.

Dinia completed his attack, but his arm crossed Night's body and inflicted no damage. The Pterodactyl even left his grasp and disappeared among the void, but the cultivator only laughed at that scene.

"Sepunia, how do you even hope to trick me?!" Dinia exploded into a laugh before throwing the scorching energy under him.

An explosion followed the event and filled the void with cracks. A fake fabric shattered and revealed how Night was still stuck in Dinia's grasp, but its constant sharp attacks had slowly eased that firm grip.

"It's time to deal with you," Dinia stated before fixing his eyes on the Pterodactyl. "I only have to endure your master's attack first."

Noah materialized above Dinia right after he completed that line. A torrent of dark matter came out of his blades and followed them as they swung toward the expert's chest.

Dinia let the attack hit him directly. A storm of dark matter with sharp properties spread through the void after the impact. Those raging waves of higher energy ended up hurting Night due to its closeness to the area, but the Pterodactyl endured them. However, after the black gales dispersed, the expert showed how the attack didn't leave a single mark on his body.

"Do you thin-?" Dinia wanted to mock Noah with a question, but the latter didn't let him finish.

A wave of intense bloodlust stronger than the dark matter released during the previous attack filled the area before flowing inside the Cursed. Sword. The blade was still on Dinia's chest, so it experienced the full intensity of the high-pitched noises that came out of its dark fabric.

The inscriptions on Dinia's body flickered under that deafening noise, but they quickly moved and generated new lines to adapt themselves to the threat. Still, a slash came out of the Cursed Sword while the expert was still busy modifying his defenses, and a dark-red light filled the void.

Noah expanded the dark world to intensify the destabilizing effects of the bloodlust, and Night soon came out of the dense sea. Some of the Pterodactyl's lines had thinned, but dark matter had already begun to cover those injuries.

The dark world didn't last long. A white radiance soon expanded in its insides and shattered the technique. Noah retreated before the light could touch him and restored the previous state of the battlefield. Yet, he couldn't help but sharpen his eyes when he saw that his attacks had failed to hurt Dinia again.

"Did you really think that my perfect self could get hurt by weaker experts?" Dinia completed his previous line and turned his broad smirk toward Noah when he saw that his chest exploded due to the drawbacks of the Cursed Sword.