Noah's body had advanced to the seventh rank. The breakthrough had given the center of power a new innate ability and immense strength. Moreover, there was another advantage that he couldn't ignore.
Noah's body had the chance to continue to grow. The divine ice left and the skull at the bottom of the lava lake were materials that he could use to improve his level while remaining in the lower plane.
That advantage was massive. Noah could ascend without having a body at the bottom of the seventh rank. He could avoid being the weakest type of god, which was important when it came to a new and unknown environment.
Noah didn't hesitate to fly toward the lava lake and dive toward its depts. His dense mental waves allowed his robe to remain intact in that environment, and his body barely felt the heat radiated by the skull.
Noah could feel that he had reached the peak of the world. His dantian had yet to face the breakthrough, but his current power placed him far beyond the realm of the heroic cultivators already.
Even if incomplete, Noah was a proper god. He could travel through the entirety of the lower plane without bothering about strategies and plans. The world had become nothing more than a playground after his last breakthrough.
Noah seized the skull and ate it on the spot. His teeth were now able to break the tough fabric of the divine materials, so he didn't need to resort to his partial Demonic Form anymore.
His body improved after each bite, but the growth was minimal. Even the rare divine materials had become nothing more than a casual meal for him.
The lava lake dispersed once Noah consumed the skull. The best training area for cultivators with a fire aptitude had fallen under his greed.
Of course, Noah didn't even bother to think about that aspect of his actions. He didn't care about the heroic cultivators left in the world. He would have probably eaten the skull even if the Hive was still in the world with him.
Improving his foundation before the ascension was too important. Moreover, that growth would give him an advantage against the Heaven Tribulation, which continued to worry him.
The dangerous feeling in the back of his mind had become more intense after his body advanced to the seventh rank. It was as if the world knew that the final breakthrough would arrive soon.
Noah ignored that sensation for the time being. He focused on eating all the divine ice and stabilize the level of his body so that he could concentrate on his dantian.
His body improved as he devoured all the divine materials in the world. Still, it didn't manage to reach the half-way mark of the lower tier with those nutrients.
Its level had barely crossed the bottom of the lower tier, but Noah expected much. It was only normal for its requirements to skyrocket after the breakthrough.
Noah didn't even feel worried about those requirements. He actually felt ecstatic about them.
Having steeper requirements meant that his body had reached an insane level of power. The lower plane's frail environment didn't allow him to test his strength, but Noah knew that he had surpassed the level of other divine creatures by a lot.
Noah could focus on his dantian after his body stabilized. That was the only center of power that could still grow while he remained in the lower plane, so all his efforts converged in his cultivation sessions.
Dantians didn't only need long hours of training to advance. They expressed a cultivator's individuality, so Noah had to pair his cultivation with meditations.
His mind was in the seventh rank, so Noah's meditations went smoothly. His two divine centers of power also stirred his dantian to improve more quickly, and that prevented the appearance of bottlenecks.
'My ambition is an energy capable of defying laws,' Noah thought during one of his meditations. 'It answers only to my will. My thoughts can transform my individuality into a force capable of miracles.'
Noah had pretty much understood what his law would be. His ambition was so boundless that it could encompass and empower all the aspects of his individuality.
It could turn the hunger inherited from the Light-devouring Dragons into intense greed that desired every form of power.
It could push his destruction beyond its normal limits. Noah could find weak spots even in creatures above his level when his ambition fueled that aspect of his existence.
His ambition could make his creation match the real world. Noah's inscription methods could force materials to surpass their limits and transform into powerful items.
His ambition could also improve his cultivation level. It could force the matter around him to grow into its best version. That force didn't have limits.
Noah focused on that. The boundlessness of his ambition was the idea that he had to elevate to the realm of laws. That was its core and the reason why his individuality could be so powerful.
The fact that his ambition had no limits made it able to apply its miraculous effects. Something like that wouldn't be possible if it had a limited amount of power.
'Boundlessness is the key,' Noah thought during his mediations.
Noah had begun to cultivate and meditate at the same time. He didn't need to remain focused on his Demonic Sword, so he could let his mind wander while his dantian enlarged.
'I wonder if I should use it,' Noah questioned himself at some point.
His focus moved on the inscriptions on his mental walls. The Divine Deduction technique was Divine Demon's masterpiece, and Noah had just reached the level when he could use it at its full power.
The strength of technique depended on the level of his mental energy, but it couldn't go past the seventh rank. Divine Demon was only a newly advanced god when he created his inheritance, so he could only leave behind the rank 7 version.
'Maybe just for a few seconds,' Noah thought as he gave in to his desire to test the Divine Deduction technique.
His mental energy moved toward the inscriptions on the mental walls, and the technique activated before Noah could even prepare for the event.
A surge of data suddenly filled his mind. The Divine Deduction technique forced his consciousness to expand and inspect the world as a whole.
Countless laws entered his view. Ideas on how to modify them appeared in his mind, and a nigh-infinite number of projects filled his thoughts as he analyzed the world.
Noah forced his mind to focus on his existence. His thoughts stopped analyzing the world and concentrated on the growth of his individuality.
Problems in the heroic ranks weren't even a problem for a divine mind boosted by the Divine Deduction technique. Noah could see his individuality as a whole and imagine the form that his true meaning would obtain once it reached the seventh rank.
'Of course!' Noah exclaimed in his mind as understanding dawned upon him. 'My ambition can't have a fixed shape! It must be a limitless fuel capable of improving anything in the world!'
Laws were simple. The more Noah thought about his individuality, the more complicated his idea of his true meaning became.
The Divine Deduction technique revealed that flaw in his reasoning and brought him back to the real path in a few instants. Noah could see his individuality evolve once he reached that conclusion.
However, a curse soon filled his mind. Noah interrupted the Divine Deduction technique to focus on his dantian and saw that his cultivation technique couldn't enlarge it anymore.
Then, a crackling noise reached his ears. Noah didn't need to raise his head to know that the Heaven Tribulation had arrived.
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Author's notes: I couldn't bring myself to do 6 am again yesterday, so I just went to sleep. The other chapters will arrive in a few hours.