Birth of the Demonic Sword

Noah's waist turned purple as blood leaked from his internal organs. His black hole quickly provided dark matter to start the healing process, and a dense membrane covered his injured tissues.

The last mace was capable of far more power than the others. Noah didn't sense anything unusual from that weapon and its statue when he inspected the corridor, but there was something different about them.

Noah wondered why the reports of the Balrow family didn't mention anything about that feature, but he quickly found the answer to his doubts. The group of cultivators that had come before him didn't reach the last statue. No one was aware of that detail.

'The creator is a sadistic monster,' Noah cursed in his mind as he assessed the injuries suffered.

The mace had managed to hurt his internal organs, which usually took longer to heal. The attack had also torn his robe, which confirmed that the last statue's power surpassed the middle tier.

'I have just fixed it,' Noah cursed again when he saw the torn spots on the robe.

It took energy to fix the robe. The item could take part of it from the environment, but the process would be faster if Noah used his darkness. Still, that slowed down his training, which annoyed him.

Noah remained in that position for a while before he straightened himself and marched toward the entrance of the protected area again.

He had never been scared of pain, and the valuable items were right in front of him. He only had to deal with one insanely strong statue to obtain them.

The statues began to swing their maces again, but Noah didn't budge when they landed on his body. Groups of cultivators would struggle to fend those attacks with their martial arts, but he could withstand them with the sheer power of his physical might.

Then, Noah stopped before reaching the last statue. Maces landed on his back, but he didn't mind them. His eyes and mental waves remained fixed on that last hindrance.

'I'm too weak to see any difference,' Noah thought as maces continued to rain on him. 'The presence of rank 8 materials makes my expertise in the inscription field useless.'

After Noah reached that conclusion, dark matter flowed inside his black vessels, and a fiendish armor made of higher energy formed around his figure. Then, he activated the Divine Deduction technique as he took a step forward.

Dark-yellow light flashed in his eyes, and the ceiling of the corridor soon filled his vision. Noah found himself outside of the array of statues again, and pain spread from his right shoulder.

'I managed to salvage the robe,' Noah thought as he straightened his position and resumed his walk toward the protected area.

A rain of maces fell on him, but Noah didn't even look at them. His eyes remained on the last statue, and the armor of dark matter reappeared around him when he reached it.

A flash of dark-yellow light made the world in his vision transform again. Noah was back at the beginning of the corridor, and pain spread from his whole chest.

'I almost saw it,' Noah thought before standing again and marching back toward the protected area.

That cycle went on for a few hours. Noah did nothing but charge through the statues and return at the beginning of the corridor after the last one hit him. His body was a mess of injuries, but he took consolation in the fact that he had found a way to overcome that defense.

The last statue swung its mace as soon as he entered its range. It was too fast for him to run past it. Yet, its weapon followed the same trajectory every time.

Noah had learnt about that detail during his initial attempts to enter the protected room, but he still lacked something to overcome that defense. His senses told him that the statue performed the same attack every time, but he had to experience it multiple times to understand its actual trajectory.

The mace was basically invisible. It was so fast that his superior awareness could only catch glimpses of its shape when it attacked him. Noah couldn't dodge it until he understood its trajectory, so he had to throw himself at the statue until he understood how it moved.

Then, after facing the threatening statue thirteen times, he sat at the beginning of the corridor and activated the Dark Womb spell to heal his injuries. He had completed his tests. His next march would be his last.

Months passed again. Noah slowly returned at his peak, fixed his robe, and cultivated to improve his power. Once he felt satisfied with his progress, he left the floor to march through the corridor again.

Noah barely felt the rain of maces. He had become so used to those attacks that his mind didn't even memorize them. They were nothing more than slaps for his body anyway. It was pointless to care about them.

When Noah reached the last statue, he stepped forward and ducked. Something flew above his head, but he didn't manage to see it. Still, he knew that he had overcome the last statue.

Noah quickly leaped forward after the mace missed him, but the last statue swung its weapon again. A stabbing pain spread from his back, but he didn't see any dark-yellow light at that time.

The scenery had changed after he focused again. Noah was against a wall, and his arms felt sore. The mace and flung him forward, directly into the protected room, but he hurt himself when he tried to stop his momentum.

No anger or annoyance surged in Noah's mind when he saw that different scenery. He turned to stare at the statues outside of the room. A smile appeared on his face as his mental waves spread.

The entirety of the room soon appeared in his mind. Noah inspected every corner of that place and found only one item inside it.

The item was a small copy of the statues on the corridor. It was barely bigger than a man's fist, but it radiated an aura that made him worried.

Noah's mental waves converged on the item, and a series of information flowed into his mind as he studied the small statue. He suddenly learnt how to control that weapon, and he didn't hesitate to spit some blood on it.

Even more pieces of information flowed into his mind at that point. A mental connection also formed between Noah and the statue. He had successfully bound it to his existence, and his eyes shone with a cold light when he understood its power.

'A disposable weapon with power at the bottom of the middle tier!' Noah exclaimed in his mind. 'This will finally give me some survivability among the other monsters!'

Noah couldn't contain his happiness. He stored the small statue in the separate space and sat on the floor to start healing his injuries.

The last attack had hurt him badly again, and his robe also needed some repairs. Still, Noah was ecstatic. The Soul Stones had been a great reward, but they couldn't compare to a weapon that could keep a liquid stage cultivator at bay for a few exchanges.