Chapter 1370: 1370. Permanent growth

Noah continued to absorb the lightning bolts, but a tremor ran through his mind when he sensed that his cultivation level began to fall. The weakening process was slow but constant. The effects of his ambition had eventually run out.

The event made his worry increase and forced him to quicken the absorption of the lightning bolts. His weakening aura filled the underground hall while carrying intense destruction. Some of the sparks transformed into primary energy even before entering his body.

Noah felt in a rush. Every fiber of his body clung to his power and struggled to fight the weakening process affecting every tissue. Even his mind began to feel dull since it lost its grip on the superior understanding that it had reached after the battle with Lady Lena.

The black hole spun faster as it continued to store energy. It didn't send anything to his body and kept every nutrient for itself. Noah's worry had influenced it and was forcing It to work faster.

A vague sense of completeness filled his mind at some point. Noah didn't completely understand what was happening, but he remained speechless when he saw that his black hole's rotations were slowing down.

He initially thought that the process had failed, but a dense wave of energy suddenly came out of his black hole and flowed toward every part of his body. Dark matter also enveloped his insides and forced the weakening process to a stop.

Noah lost his connection with the outside world when the dark matter filled him. His vision went dark, and no sound reached his ears. He also stopped feeling the toughness of the ground. The black hole had cut him away from any external input.

Then, shining dust-like energy started to flow out of the dark matter and enter all his tissues. Noah felt an intense surge of energy enveloping his whole body and affecting his other centers of power. The black hole had triggered a peculiar process, and he could only observe its effects in that situation.

Waves of energy filled his insides. Those nutrients entered his tissues and forced them to evolve. Noah had already reached a state of nigh-perfection after the continuous purifications of his black hole, but that transformation seemed to push him across the half-step that he had yet to complete.

His nails slightly grew, and the icy-blue light radiated by his reptilian eyes intensified. Minute bits of impurities came out of his pores, and more dark vessels grew under his skin.

His muscles bulged, and his internal organs began to work faster. A sense of clarity also unfolded as that energy nourished his mind. Noah could finally analyze his transformation thoroughly, and he liked what he was witnessing.

The black hole had learnt from the expert's aura. It had found ways to improve its purification and optimize the division and type of nutrients that the tissues had to receive. It had used the individuality carried by the lightning bolts to improve.

The fourth center of power had depleted most of the energy absorbed in the room to perform that research, but it could now reveal its benefits. Noah felt at the very peak of the food chain when he sensed those nutrients improving his tissues. He could sense that the black hole was polishing his already incredible species.

Most of the energy redirected toward his other tissues went on his dantian. The black hole understood that his ambition's drawbacks were about to endanger his centers of power, so it did its best to stabilize its structure.

His dantian could contain liquid darkness in its current state, but the weakening process wanted to bring its power back in the gaseous stage. Yet, the black hole tried to set Noah's new level as the foundation of his power. There was a chance to make those breakthroughs permanent, so it didn't hold back anything to succeed in the task.

Noah began to feel hungry as the improvement continued. His focus remained on his dantian. He saw the dark matter releasing massive quantities of primary energy that fused with his organ and tried to detach it from the after-effects of his ambition.

His dantian soon began to shrink again, and the same went for his other centers of power. Noah was losing his power, and he could only hope that his black hole's solution would work.

As nutrients flowed in his dantian, the organ stopped shrinking and modified its structure according to the properties carried by the primary energy.

The black hole was stuffing energy inside his dantian to force it to remain at that level. Stopping the drawbacks seemed impossible, so it tried to create a checkpoint where the weakening had to stop.

Silent hours went by in complete darkness. Noah couldn't sense anything coming from the outside world, so he focused his whole attention on his insides.

The weakening continued. Noah saw his dantian reaching the bottom of the liquid stage and threatening to collapse, but its structure suddenly stabilized and stopped suffering from the drawbacks of his ambition. The same went for his body and mind. The black hole had succeeded.

His body's level reached the bottom of the middle tier and stopped falling. His mind tried to collapse on itself, but the energy that flowed inside its mental walls halted that process.

Noah had yet to realize it fully, but he had broken a record of the Immortal Lands. He had reached the liquid stage in mere decades. His ambition and his black hole had succeeded in making him defy common sense once again.

'My black hole has turned my potential into actual power,' Noah thought as the outside world reappeared in his senses.

His ambition was a strange power that allowed him to fulfill his potential, but it worked as a secret technique that applied hefty prices to his empowerment. Yet, the black hole had managed to transform that temporary boost into permanent growth.

'This can become an alternative to my cultivation technique,' Noah thought as he reviewed what had happened since his first exchange with Lady Lena.

It made sense for his ambition to improve his power, and it wasn't strange for that growth to be permanent either. That was the whole point of his individuality. It could transform potential into actual strength.

However, it was tricky to use. Noah had almost died against Lady Lena, and he had needed to deploy his black flames before that exchange happened to obtain those effects.

What had happened to his centers of power wasn't the result of a proper technique. It was a sum of multiple abilities that could pair their effects to create something that most cultivators would label as miraculous.

Noah wanted to replicate that effect and transform it into a technique. Yet, he couldn't experiment with that procedure, and his mind warned him about his lack of potential to use it.

He had already reached the level of power that he deserved. If he wanted to go through that procedure again, he had to understand and wield the power hidden behind the higher stages.

Noah felt hungry and tired after that procedure, but his tests had just begun. His first consisted in seeing if his ambition could raise his cultivation level again, and the answer to that doubt was a loud "no". He couldn't even activate his individuality in his current condition.

'I see,' Noah concluded. 'Increasing the influence of my ambition gives me potential. I can use it to improve my power through normal training sessions or to be reborn as a stronger being every time.'

Noah didn't linger for too long on that mental discussion with himself. He set off toward the deeper parts of the cave. There was an inheritance in front of him, and he couldn't wait to seize rewards.