Chapter 1555: 1555. Stealing

Shandal had remained inside the separate space for years. He had witnessed the raging waves of dark matter, the evolution of the dark world, and the empowerment of the two Blood Companions.

The expert had gone through desperation and fear until he felt nothing more than helplessness. Shandal knew that nothing in the world could stop Noah now. He had studied his life enough to be sure that the Immortal Lands were in for a show.

When dark matter began to envelop Shandal's figure, he knew that his time had come. The higher energy brought him back in the outside world, where he found Noah staring coldly at him.

"You have overcome every expectation," Shandal sighed. "The Crystal City knew that you would eventually return in the human domain. Even Madame Canson had taken your threat seriously. It seemed that her efforts were pointless."

Noah didn't answer. His consciousness enveloped Shandal and inspected every inch of his body. The expert still had Madame Canson's crystals fused with his tissues, but Noah's dark matter was suppressing their power.

"I hope you know that my actions have never been personal," Shandal continued. "I couldn't resist when the secret organization introduced me to the Crystal City. I have been desperate for too many years."

Shandal wasn't trying to appeal to Noah's pity. He had lived long enough to know that nothing could save his life in that situation.

His words were nothing more than a memoir. Shandal didn't want to die without saying some last lines. Even those few justifications made him at peace with himself.

Noah slowly removed the crystals. His physical strength had reached an insane level of power. He could directly rip them off and let his dark matter absorb their energy.

The process was quite painful for Shandal, but he didn't flinch. He didn't let out a single scream while his cultivation level fell at the bottom of the seventh rank.

Noah felt quite disappointed when he inspected Shandal again. The expert was a mere existence at the bottom of the seventh rank, but he had managed to cause many problems.

'Why did I even suffer so much because of him?' Noah wondered.

He felt disappointed in himself. The whole mess with the Crystal City had been a mistake on his side. Noah had underestimated how influential large organizations could be. It had been enough for Shandal to point at his friends for Noah to experience desperation.

"Is it too much to ask you to make it quick?" Shandal asked, and Noah finally decided to answer.

"I don't care about your life," Noah explained, "But your ability is quite powerful. I want it."

Shandal could stop time, and Noah had long since acknowledged the power of his existence. Unfortunately, that ability directly interfered with Heaven and Earth's laws. It was a partial copy of their true meaning, which was the reason why Shandal didn't manage to bring it to the seventh rank on his own.

After Madame Canson's empowerment, Shandal had finally managed to step into the divine ranks. His existence was complete. His level didn't fall under the seventh rank even after Noah seized the purple crystals.

'Madame Canson has managed to complete this power,' Noah thought while placing his hand on Shandal's head. 'I wonder what this ability can do with my ambition as a fuel.'

"Do you want to turn me into one of your puppets?" Shandal asked before an unsightly expression appeared on his face. "That's not ideal, but I have seen worse ends."

A lump of dark matter covered Shandal's mouth and forced him to shut up. The silence allowed Noah to focus on the expert's existence and study the full extent of his ability.

Madame Canson had tampered with Shandal's existence. She had to fill the gaps in his lackluster power, which ended up ruining the expert's original idea.

Noah wanted to remove Madame Canson's influence from Shandal's existence. He had to get rid of that virus to gain access to the core idea behind that law.

Purple trails slowly flew out of Shandal's figure as Noah's mental waves seeped into his existence and forced Madame Canson's influence out. His dark matter then absorbed that power and removed the virus from the world.

Shandal's cultivation level continued to fall, but Noah didn't mind it. He had performed a similar procedure with his diagrams. He had broken them down to seize their core idea before rebuilding them according to his existence.

Noah didn't take much to complete the procedure. Shandal was a simple rank 7 cultivator. Even his mental waves were more than enough to crush him into pieces.

Shandal reverted to his quasi-rank 7 state. His eyes radiated an unfathomable sadness when he experienced that familiar level of power again. Yet, Noah's procedure had just begun.

'I hope that Supreme Thief wasn't bragging,' Noah thought before focusing on his greed.

An intense desire to eat and seize everything in the world seeped into his aura, which began to spread destructive features. The matter naturally fell apart and generated primary energy that converged toward his figure.

Noah focused on his desire to obtain Shandal's power. He wanted to seize that ability and transform it into part of his arsenal.

His desire triggered a strange process in his mental sea. Noah felt uncomfortable when blue shades appeared on his black mental waves before giving birth to a pulling force.

Shandal felt as if his existence was slipping away from his body. Noah was forcefully pulling all his experiences and memories from his centers of power.

That energy was nothing for Noah's current level. A faint wave of dark matter was enough to contain it and condense its structure.

When the process ended, Noah let Shandal go, and the expert fell on the ground, breaking into pieces. His tissues had lost their power, so the impact with the terrain had been enough to shatter him.

Noah raised his hand, and a small sphere of dark matter appeared on his palm. An azure light shone inside that prison of higher energy and radiated Shandal's aura.

'The technique worked!' Noah exclaimed while inspecting the azure energy.

Noah felt immediately able to activate Shandal's ability, but he refrained from testing that. The lump of azure light was nothing more than quasi-rank 7 energy. He would need to polish it to bring its power to a decent level.

'I can move right away, but I think that stabilizing my power should come first,' Noah decided before sitting on the ground and sending a few orders to his underlings.

Noah was safe in those regions. He was deep into the Outer Lands, surrounded by his underlings and in areas under his complete control.

The Foolery would soon transform those lands into blue paradises, and his influence would even force his underlings to evolve.

Waiting a few decades before leaving seemed the best option. Noah also had to bring the Demonic Sword and Night into the eighth rank, other than taking care of the Demonic Form.

His ambition was out of potential, so Noah couldn't empower his cultivation level and abilities anymore. It was better to spend some time polishing his new battle prowess to feel even safer during his return. He had even gained a new technique that he couldn't wait to add to his arsenal.