Chapter 268: 268. Chains

Noah's march became a bit faster.

Adding the "Breath" to his move wasn't a hard task, he had only to match his body's movements with it.

However, the results were already starting to satisfy him.

Noah ran at a normal pace but his speed suddenly increased every time he pressed twice on the ground with the move that he had memorized.

'This is the right feeling! I'm still far away from surpassing the acceleration that I can obtain by simply using the full power of my body though.'

He had a rank 4 body, a martial art that weak couldn't give him any real advantage.

'This is one of the issues with using the diagram of a rank 0 spell, if I limit myself to the simple imitation, I can only obtain a somewhat similar power.'

Noah had no use for a martial art with the power of a rank 0 spell, he needed something that could match the Three Forms of the Ashura for it to be useful.

'Well, if I had tried to work with more complex diagrams, I would still be in the isolation stage.'

Noah's fast results were mostly due to the simplicity of the spell that he was imitating, his hard work and dedication only helped in shortening the process.

'The form is basically set, now I have to see how far I can go with it and then apply some modifications.'

Reaching the limits of what the imitation of the spell could produce and then modifying it to raise its power, Noah knew what he had to do.

His journey continued quietly.

Noah spent his days doing what he liked the most, the feeling of having his centers of power becoming stronger after each session of cultivation was extremely appreciated by him.

The four months of escape didn't allow him to train at all, they were a huge blow on his morale considering his addiction to cultivation.

Yet, he had finally gone back on track and he had no imminent limit.

He had even absorbed again "Breath" in his sea of consciousness, that gaseous energy stood like a black cloud over the sea in his mental sphere, generating an incredible internal pressure.

Like that, his mind enlarged even during the days spent marching, he was really making a complete use of his time.

A whole month had to pass before he reached the next country.

The scenery was about the same, forests and small hills covered the landscape but the atmosphere felt way tenser to Noah.

'This country is inhabited and there is a high percentage of cultivators!'

Noah couldn't help but become warier of his surroundings.

He didn't really think that he could meet many people stronger than him, he was entering a country far away from the center of the Empire after all, there could only be that many powerful cultivators.

'Soprad nation, an underling of the Empire, I wonder how it is structured.'

The map told Noah those few information and he was quite eager to discover the differences between the peripheral countries in the area of influence of the Utra nation and of the Empire.

'It is said that the Empire gives to everyone a rank 3 body-nourishing method, I wonder how they manage to maintain control over the masses if that's true.'

The nobles in the Utra nation kept control over the population by restricting the access to techniques and spells, there could never be a revolution of the commoners there since they simply didn't have the means to cultivate.

Commoners saw cultivators as superior beings, they wouldn't ever think about rebelling.

Noah advanced, his pace was quite slow since he was still experimenting in his martial art.

During the last month, he had increased the amount of strength and "Breath" used when he performed his technique and he had obtained some satisfying results.

The martial art had reached the power of the second rank, Noah was using more power of his centers of power as he used it, it was obvious that its effect became stronger with it.

Yet, he felt that he had reached a certain limit.

No matter how more strength or "Breath" he put in the technique, the effects didn't increase.

Instead, they would completely disappear, meaning that the execution of the martial art had failed.

Noah knew that the lines that he had isolated from the diagram of the Shadow step spell had reached their limits, they simply couldn't express more power in that form.

What he had to do now was to make a modification to those lines in order to surpass the limits of the original spell.

However, he really didn't know how to do it.

'The creation of spells requires diagrams which are a composition of different lines in a certain order. Those lines are generally a form of inscription, cultivators study a natural event and reproduce it in the form of diagrams. That's quite a disadvantage for me.'

To recognize and translate an event in the form of inscription, one had to be proficient in the "attunement" method.

Noah's inscription method, however, was completely unrelated to Heaven and Earth, it was his will that set the meaning.

'I don't have any other spell from which I can isolate lines that express effects useful to me… Well, I have them but it's too dangerous to break up their diagrams with my current level. The only thing I can do is to create completely new lines but my inscription method works in a different way…'

The "attunement" method was the best option for the creation of new spells and techniques, practitioners of that method could literally hear the meaning of the "Breath" after all.

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However, that method was precluded to Noah, he couldn't create diagrams with the help of the world.

'Either I find a way or I drop this idea until my sea of consciousness reaches the heroic ranks.'

He had never stopped moving while he had his mental discussion and he had arrived near a human's settlement.

The scene that unfolded in front of him was quite far away from his expectations.

It was a small encampment, with a hundred or so tents.

Yet, most of the people there had metal collars around their necks, linked together by large chains that were fixed on the ground.