Noah had a large amount of the dense pitch-black liquid extracted by the training area, and the blueprint for the ethereal center of power was already in his mind. He only had to complete a few more steps, but the project had reached its last phase.
The old training area didn't suit his needs, so he needed to change it. Moreover, moving often would slow down an eventual study from the old rulers' side, so he didn't hesitate to list his requests and settling in a different structure.
The new training area didn't have much. It only featured reinforced surfaces and a few useful functions that Noah didn't need. He only had to work on the materials that he had gathered previously now. The inscriptions in place were only a precaution.
The liquid was the correct material, but Noah couldn't use it in its current form. It was a dense mass made of his potential, but it still belonged to the eighth rank, even if it embodied the very power to touch the superior realm.
The liquid was nothing more than another version of Noah's potential that had no connection with his existence. It was identical to his law, but he didn't share any mental link.
Condensing the liquid so that it could naturally evolve into something stronger was a viable option, but Noah didn't want to reduce the amount of material at his disposal. He needed to push it to the ninth rank without affecting its quantity, which required his ambition.
Noah had worked together with King Elbas when creating the black landmass and building items that could spread his ambition in different regions. He knew how to replicate those tools, and the process was even easier inside that isolated environment.
The reinforced walls didn't let anything escape on the outside. Noah could use the workshop to create dispensers meant to enhance the ambition naturally radiated by his figure. The dark world also enhanced the natural properties of the training area, so everything soon became packed with his influence.
Noah put the special items in the corners of the training area and filled its insides with liquid dark matter that carried similar effects. Even the slightest influence naturally radiated by his figure transformed into a massive force that threatened to affect the inscriptions on the surfaces. Still, the dark world did its best to keep those effects in the insides of the room.
The special liquid created by extracting his potential floated at the center of the training hall, right above Noah. He sat cross-legged under the dense sphere hovering above his head while he focused on images that intensified the innate release of his influence.
Noah's ambition tried to affect the walls, the ceiling, the floor, and the inscriptions, but most of its effects converged on the floating sphere due to the impact of the dark world. The pitch-black liquid became even denser during that slow but constant process, eventually reaching its desired state.
The liquid's fabric solidified when its power stepped inside the ninth rank. Noah had successfully created something that stood in the last realm of the cultivation journey, but the achievement barely fazed him. His focus was on far heavier matters. The advancement of that potential marked the beginning of the last phase of his project.
It was now or never. Everything was ready for the creation of the ethereal center of power, and Noah made sure to suppress his last brim of hesitation before standing up and retrieving the dark world. The waves of dark matter even grabbed the items at the corners of the room and brought everything inside the separate space.
The crystal sphere tried to fall when it lost the support of the dark matter, but Noah easily kept it above his head with his mental waves. The black hole filled his insides with higher energy and created a small version of the dark world that expanded through his organs, blood vessels, and muscles. Noah felt stuffed, and black flares came out of his mouth when he opened it and pointed it toward the core material.
The dark matter enveloped the crystal sphere again, but it carried a different purpose at that time. The liquid higher energy dragged the huge item toward Noah's mouth as a blueprint lit up inside his mind and controlled the workshops in the dark world inside his body.
Noah's knowledge of space allowed him to shrink the huge item. His power wouldn't usually be able to affect a rank 9 material so heavily, but the dark world created a unique environment that worked perfectly against the sphere and its nature. He could change the crystal's shape at will without affecting its actual power or fabric there.
The sphere could enter Noah's mouth with its new size, and the workshops promptly tore apart pieces of his centers of power before fusing them with the crystal. A chunk of his dantian, a shard of his mental walls, and a portion of his spine separated and flowed toward the item made of enhanced potential before everything entered the black hole.
The fourth center of power took care of perfecting that fusion. Noah's mind was basically standing at the edges of the ninth rank, but the black hole could still express more power in its current state. The superior nature of the higher energy made that organ able to transform and improve the crystal without needing additional empowerment. The unique environment created by the dark world was enough to avoid restrictions.
Noah waited for the dark world to complete its task, and a sharp pain eventually spread from his chest. Flares of a massive power tried to shoot out of his figure and flow into the training area, but the black hole prevented any dispersion of energy.
The pain only intensified during the wait, but Noah didn't do anything to quell his sensations. That process was far beyond his power now. The next moments would decide whether he would explode or obtain what he needed.
Faint trails of dense black smoke eventually came out of his back. That strange energy seeped through his skin and gathered along his spine while deciding which form to take.
Noah could already confirm that the size of his ethereal center of power was already bigger compared to his copies, but the process didn't stop there. The strange energy expanded and filled his entire back before stretching forward.
The black energy transformed into a backpack-like structure before continuing to expand. The faint container almost stretched as far as the walls before stopping and gaining unclear edges. Its actual limits seemed to flicker, but Noah only confirmed the success of his project at that sight.
That ethereal center of power was far bigger than everything developed by the copies, but that wasn't its greatest feature. Noah's new organ only had fake edges that he could theoretically expand. He still didn't know how, but he had left that chance open in case his calculation turned out to be wrong.
Noah had made sure to leave some space for his growth. His current poor judgment couldn't condemn his cultivation journey.
The faint black energy began to disappear and force its way inside the fabric of the world, but another sharp pain followed Noah while he was busy inspecting the nature of his creation. His mental walls started to tremble, and mental energy naturally flowed toward the new center of power.