Chapter 2168 - 2168. Breakthrough
Being immersed in Heaven and Earth's whiteness was normal for those inside the higher plane. That was even truer during a mission inside the sky. The rulers' light could stretch almost everywhere, and powerful experts could push it back only temporarily.
However, Noah's influence didn't stop there. His heavy aura pushed the whiteness back before infecting it with black lines that expanded in every direction.
Those lines resembled the infective destruction that Noah usually unleashed when in front of an opponent that he couldn't defeat in a few blows. Yet, those structures carried something far deeper now. They expressed the entirety of Noah's world, which made them reach new realms of heaviness and power.
The lines expanded and enlarged, transforming into spiderwebs that quickly merged their edges. They soon turned into vast spots resembling black lakes immersed in the purest white radiance, and their influence forced the entire area to darken.
King Elbas and the others remained stunned before that sudden event, and Heaven and Earth's army fell prey to the same feeling. Everyone in the area turned toward Noah, and their expressions inevitably twisted to reveal their mental state.
Even the faceless avatars developed mouths and other features that helped express their feelings toward the black infection. Still, they didn't reveal any surprise or amazement. They only had hatred and anger to show to the world.
The event was quite hilarious since Noah's aura was the reason behind their new facial features. His infective black aura had forced the avatars to improve a bit, but their core as Heaven and Earth's puppets made them hate that newfound power.
Instead, the experts in the area experienced various emotions, but they all shared intense amazement. The power that Noah was unleashing into the world didn't make any sense. Even solid stage cultivators would struggle to cause those reactions inside the sky.
Meanwhile, Noah was barely paying attention to his surroundings. His eyes were open, but they didn't look at the darkening environment. The entirety of his attention was on his centers of power and world.
The ethereal blackness had been restless since Noah pierced the ninth floor of the Cursed Labyrinth. That state had only intensified after Caesar's trial. Noah's world had continued to grow during the flight through the sky, inevitably leading to a breaking point.
The ethereal edges of Noah's world expanded as new potential filled its insides. He noticed how his core energy had changed now, but the transformation had yet to complete its course.
The new potential created waves that flowed toward the centers of power. Everything about Noah improved and sent that energy back to the ethereal blackness.
The exchange of potential happened multiple times in cycles that brought new power whenever they ended. The ethereal blackness gave the centers of power the energy to improve. Meanwhile, they set new standards after each step forward.
The exchange led to a sharp increase of power, which translated into the new heaviness that Noah was expressing. He felt able to stretch his fingers into deeper areas of the space-time fabric, and some of them seemed to be outside Heaven and Earth's control.
'I can almost touch the universe,' Noah thought as his swords began to shake.
The tremors generated shockwaves that quickened the expansion of the black infection. The dark lakes transformed into a proper sea that stretched past the battlefield and reached areas behind the nine prisms.
The expansion of the black sea was only the least significant effect of Noah's new aura. The greatest changes happened to Heaven and Earth's influence and their army.
The dimming white light stopped applying pressure on King Elbas and the others. Heaven and Earth's power also diminished and failed to hinder the experts on their path toward the prisms.
The avatars experienced spontaneous explosions due to the conflicting forces that filled their bodies. Noah's aura had forced them to improve, but his influence wasn't in line with Heaven and Earth's power, which led to internal fights.
Every avatar, even those in the upper tier, saw entire limbs or vast chunks of their bodies blown away due to the conflicting energy inside their structure. Heaven and Earth couldn't allow that tampering, which only weakened their army.
Of course, the privileged cultivators could fend off Noah's energy, but that didn't stop them from remaining in a daze. They understood what was happening. They had actually waited for that event for quite some time by now. Noah was stepping on the liquid stage.
Still, the breakthrough went beyond what the privileged cultivators had predicted. Even Heaven and Earth's help didn't allow them to come up with a correct prediction. Noah was unleashing too much power for an expert in the liquid stage, and his aura kept getting heavier.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the entire battlefield had come to a stop while Noah was experiencing the breakthrough. The effects that his new aura was spreading in the environment were captivating, but they weren't the most interesting aspect of the event.
Noah's aura, influence, and weight confirmed what the privileged cultivators and his allies had started to expect a long time ago. Everyone wanted to watch the birth of the strongest liquid stage expert in the world.
The exchange of potential eventually came to an end, and Noah's power stabilized only to skyrocket in the following instant. He had immediately put his new energy to use, which pushed his existence toward superior realms that even the privileged cultivators in the solid stage felt forced to take seriously.
Noah didn't care about the army. He didn't even bother to check the state of the maimed avatar carrying a chunk of Heaven and Earth's real power. He had a single goal in mind, and he didn't hesitate to pursue it.
The Cursed Sword and the Demonic Sword slowly descended until their tips pointed at the spherical structure created by the nine prisms. Avatars, privileged cultivators, and allies occupied that path, but Noah limited himself to growl a single word before unleashing his power. "Move."
The attack that came out of Noah's swords was silent. It had the shape of a thin black line that disappeared among the black sea.
Its disappearance didn't prevent the other experts in the area from sensing its power. King Elbas, June, Queen, and the privileged cultivators instinctively retreated to get out of the attack's trajectory. They knew that something massive was about to arrive, so they unleashed defensive techniques to prepare for the event.
The avatars were too damaged to move in time to dodge the attack. The line continued to fly through the black sea and crossed the maimed giant but stopped right before reaching the nine prisms.
The attack seemed to end there, but everything exploded after a silent second went by. The arrival of the black line triggered something inside the dark sea and the energy that had affected the avatars to generate a series of detonations.
Each explosion carried the peak of Noah's destruction, including the might that his companions could unleash. That single attack had made use of the entirety of his power without needing any preparation, and the world inevitably suffered.
After the explosions fused to create a chaotic environment, the whiteness became impossible to see. Waves of pure destructions flowed among the void that had replaced the battlefield. Intense winds blew and pushed away every trace of Heaven and Earth's power.
The path between Noah and the nine prisms was the only spot devoid of his destructive power. Nothing existed in that area, and the universe's fabric also appeared slightly unstable. However, it was a passage that King Elbas didn't hesitate to exploit.
King Elbas' figure released intense golden light that allowed him to cut through the destructive waves and discharge the weapon in the empty passage.. The latter began to fly on its own at that point, and nothing managed to stop it from reaching the nine prisms.