Chapter 1522: 1522. Underlings

Noah felt light-headed as the bloodlust accumulated in the past centuries flowed inside the cursed sword. That dense mass of energy fused with the weapon and transformed its fabric.

The cursed sword stretched, and scarlet lines appeared on its sharp edge. A strange red symbol also formed at the base of its blade. When Noah inspected it, he sensed a vague resemblance with the demon head from the Chasing Demon sect.

"Why did this appea-?" Noah said before a sense of weakness filled his body and interrupted his question.

Noah fell on his knees. His body was still falling apart, and that sense of weakness almost made him faint. Still, he quickly spat flames to fix part of his condition.

"I'm attuning with you," The cursed blade replied. "This mark only expresses your influence."

The corpse of the rank 8 crocodile entered his separate space, and the Demonic Sword left his grasp as Noah placed both hands on the terrain to support himself.

Noah had already sensed a similar weakness. That feeling matched the drawbacks of his ambition. He was paying the price for the battle prowess showed earlier.

Lumps of blood fell out of Noah's mouth. He coughed and spat during that event. His body was rejecting the very liquids that allowed it to function. NovelWell.com

The black hole did its best to keep Noah in one piece, but there was a limit to what it could do in that situation. Noah had gone overboard during the fight, and the evolution of the cursed sword didn't help his condition.

Fergie quickly flew toward Noah, but the latter expanded the dark world and kept his underling outside of his technique. Noah could feel that his centers of power had grown unstable, so he didn't want anyone near him until his condition stabilized.

Night flew through the dark world and seized the two pieces of the crocodile's mouth from the ground. Once the Pterodactyl returned near Noah, the dark world started to destroy those materials to absorb its nutrients.

A wave of energy eventually flowed through Noah's tissues and began to fight against those drawbacks. The stress accumulated by his centers of power also dispersed as the best nutrients that his cultivation level allowed him to seize fed his tissues.

Noah slowly recovered, and the cursed sword completed its evolution during the process. A wave of bloodlust flowed inside his mind at that point and made him lose strength in his arms.

His head slammed on the ground as bloodthirsty thoughts filled his mind and altered his usual mindset. Noah ignored his condition to focus his full attention on his mental sphere. He had to suppress those emotions before his instincts forced him to jump into another battle.

The process was pure torture. The drawbacks of Noah's ambition and the bloodlust worked together to tear him apart, but he did everything in his power to balance their effects.

Eventually, Noah suppressed the bloodlust and stabilized his condition. He still felt frail, but that was only normal when he considered what he had done.

'Maybe dispersing the dragon form wasn't a good idea,' Noah thought as a happy smirk appeared on his face.

Noah could immediately understand why the drawbacks of his ambition had been so intense. His previous empowerment of the centers of power didn't matter since it had been in place for less than ten minutes. The reason behind that weakness came from his foundation.

When Noah had killed the crocodile, he had focused his ambition on his attacks, making them able to hurt rank 8 creatures.

Yet, Noah's cultivation level had been far away from the peak of the seventh rank at that time. He didn't even rely on special techniques or transformations, so his ambition had to work extra hard to fill the gap from the eighth rank.

The more ambition Noah used, the harsher the drawbacks would be. The density of his true meaning had also affected them, leading to an intense weakness.

Noah could barely find the strength to stand up. He only wanted to sleep and rest after that successful battle.

'I still have something to do,' Noah thought, and Snore quickly materialized under him.

The dark world dispersed while Noah stored what remained of the crocodile's mouth and the cursed sword. His figure laid on Snore's head, and the duo rose in the sky to near their companions.

The pack of crocodiles had begun to disperse after those underlings sensed the death of their leader. They had no reason to fight against a group that featured a rank 8 magical beast.

Noah gave voice to a roar once he reached the other battlefield. The Foolery shot surprised glances toward him, but they didn't dare to contest his decisions.

Most of the weaker crocodiles ignored Noah's call and left, but a few interrupted their escape and turned toward him. Their instincts also told him to bow in front of that almost collapsed existence.

Noah roared again, and the crocodiles drew closer. The Foolery didn't attack them since they had understood Noah's intentions, and Fergie also remained silent to let his leader work freely.

"You… cough… will follow me from now on," Noah said once all the crocodiles that had listened to his roar gathered around him.

Those beasts were nothing more than rank 7 creatures. Only a few of them were in the upper tier, and their overall prowess was relatively poor. Still, Noah wanted them for purposes that didn't only involve battles.

"I thought you would aim directly for the rank 8 magical beasts," Fergie whispered after nearing Noah.

"My ambition has just evolved again," Noah replied. "I don't know how it affects the environment and the living beings around me, but these creatures can help me understand it."

"Are they portable guinea pigs?" Fergie asked.

"Cough. Not really," Noah replied before clearing his throat. "They are portable cannon fodder that I can study from time to time to understand how powerful my influence is."

Noah's decision had come after he became able to kill rank 8 creatures on his own. Instead of letting those magical beasts free, he preferred to keep them in his pack to increase the overall power of his organization.

"Some of them might even reach the eighth rank," Noah added. "I wonder if they can develop new abilities as long as they remain with me."

The Foolery felt a bit disappointed that part of their targets was no more, but they soon dived toward the ground to inspect the whole area. They began to eat any form of vegetation, ignoring that their new companions might also need nutrients.

"I will dig a cave a bit farther away," Noah said before Snore began to move toward a different region. "It's time to start working toward our goal. I need to build an army, and this is the first step."

Noah didn't consider the Foolery as part of his pack, not yet at least. Their leader was still stronger than him, so he could only see them as companions.

The crocodiles were different. They answered only to Noah. He was their leader, and they were mere underlings.

That role made them instantly see Fergie as their superior. Some of them even tried to become his mount, but the expert refused those beasts. It was better if they focused on protecting Noah for the time being.