Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah exited the inventory building.

He was deep in thought but he could not hide the excitement that he felt.

'I should really find a way to make money. Well, at least now I have the means to improve all my centers of power.'

The Yin body for the body, the Kesier rune for the mind, the Dark vortex for the dantian, and the Three forms of the Ashura coupled with the Shadow steps spell for his combat style.

He was eager to go back to his lodgings but there was another matter that had to be completed.

Noah went to the building where he received the academy token.

The same old woman was on the desk inside the structure.

"I need to state the courses that I want to attend and I would like to ask information about one of them."

Noah handed his token to the woman that gestured him to continue.

"General cultivation, real battle, and study of magical beasts. I would like to know more about the Elemental forging course though."

The woman nodded and wrote something on a tablet on the desk.

She then raised her head to look at Noah spoke in a calm voice.

"You need to request for an external teacher but it will cost you."

Noah was aware of that aspect and replied.

"How much?"

She sorted some kind of inscribed sheet before answering him.

"There is only one cultivator affiliated to the academy that teaches it. He requests for three hundred Credits for every private lesson."

'That much! What I have is just enough for ten lessons!'

Noah was quite conflicted about that.

On one side, he already had everything he needed to increase his strength in the incoming years.

On the other one, he was afraid that his lack of knowledge in the inscription field would be a hindrance to his future advancements.

'Fuck it, it's just money.'

"I accept. How does it work then?"

The woman wrote a line over the sheet and then did the same with the token.

"It might take a while for him to arrive at the academy. Just attend your normal courses, the token has the schedule already stored in it. You will be informed when your requested teacher arrives and you will directly pay him."

Noah took the token back and bowed.

He hurriedly went back to his lodging.

There were no lessons for the whole week and Noah had too many techniques to catch up with.

He looked at the Yin body first, but he found out that it was required to be cultivated at night.

Since it was still midday, he chose to inspect the rank 0 spell.

'Shadow steps, it creates small circles made of "Breath" under your feet. Stepping on them will propel you at fast speed in the desired direction.'

It was a movement type spell, it could vastly improve Noah's footwork making his fast martial art more deadly.

There was also another reason why he chose it: it was completely compatible with his flight through Echo's wings!

Noah focused on the diagram and memorized it in two hours.

It was a rank 0 spell after all, learning it took no time to Noah that was already halfway through the first rank of the sea of consciousness.

Noah stood up and replicated the lines of the diagram in his mind.

Mental energy and "Breath" were expended but their quantity wasn't much.

'This consumption is totally sustainable in long fights. I only need to train in it.'

A small black circle appeared under his sole as Noah raised his foot in the air.

Noah stepped on it and pushed with medium strength.

The ring shattered but Noah jumped till the ceiling of the room, blocking the impact with his hands.

'Definitely worth the consumption, I should train more in an open space. Maybe I can pick up some simple missions already.'

He tried some more times to get used to the sensation of the activation of the spell and then moved his focus to the martial art.

'Three forms of the Ashura, it basically consists of three techniques that have to be implemented in my martial art to improve its rank. However, I'm not totally sure that I have enough "Breath" and mental energy to use it. I should just memorize the moves for now, I'll try its actual prowess outside the academy.'

Noah trained in the three forms, his sabers swung across the room as they moved according to the instructions of the martial art.

He could clearly feel that there was an incredible power behind the positions and he tried to mix them with his already mastered art.

In the end, the night came.

Noah could not wait anymore and he stuffed some food from his space-ring in his mouth and sat on the floor with the Yin body scroll open in front of him.

'I first need to choose where the absorption should begin. It is usually advised to equally distribute the "Breath" on the body but I'm quite sure that my seven acupoints know what to do.'

His acupoints refilled the "Breath" in his body as soon as it was used.

However, since he reached the liquid stage that "Breath" had become quite useless in battle.

Noah focused on his acupoints.

The Yin body method of absorption was similar to his Dark vortex cultivation technique.

The Dark vortex was created consuming part of his "Breath" to attract the one of its same kind.

The Yin body created a vortex that rotated at a certain rhythm that attracted only the "Breath" of the darkness element and distributed it in certain parts of the body.

In the Yin body method, the focus was on the bone marrow.

Noah didn't need to create a vortex since he had already seven of them and only focused on changing their rotation rhythm.

It was hard at the beginning since even a slight mistake would stop the attraction of the "Breath".

After attempting for four hours, Noah finally managed to control one of his acupoints to follow the described rhythm.

A cold sensation enveloped his back, the "Breath" that was absorbed sent chills down his spine.

As more and more "Breath" entered the vortex, the acupoint below it began to darken.

A wave of coldness invaded Noah, the new "Breath" traveled through his body and completely vanquished the one that was already stored by the Seven Hells method.

Little by little, that emptied space was being filled by a dark and cold gas.