The mountain chain had disappeared, but Noah could accept that. Nothing ever lasted too long among the storms, especially the lands that they created. Only a few environments with specific purposes could remain relatively intact since Heaven and Earth influenced their creation and destruction.

However, the presence of the sky was a surprise that Noah couldn't explain. The dark world would have prevented any attempt to affect its position, so he knew that he had remained in the same spot inside the stormy regions. He could come up with a few guesses, but they all sounded unreal after the energy that Heaven and Earth had to deplete to deal with the monster.

Noah could only approach the white layer to find answers. He initially guessed that Heaven and Earth had found the location of his breakthrough and had tried to isolate him from the rest of the world, but that guess vanished in mere seconds.

The white layer wasn't a cage. It didn't even try to apply any pressure on the empty area left behind by the dark world. When Noah unfolded his consciousness, he noticed that the bright material expanded far past his position. He actually couldn't find other spots devoid of that whiteness in his surroundings.

Other strange details became clear in his mind after his initial inspection. The white material was identical to the sky, but it didn't carry its usual features. It slightly opposed Noah's mental waves without ever stopping them, and its fabric didn't have the devouring ability that made Heaven and Earth's world so scary.

'Is this a copy?' Noah wondered before dismissing that thought. 'No, no one can create such a perfect imitation. This is Heaven and Earth's work, but why does it lack its usual features?'

The strangeness of the situation didn't offer any answer. Noah could only question his companions about the matter since they had guarded him during his breakthrough, but their memories ended up confusing him even more.

Night and the others had experienced the same confusion when they inspected the event. They had seen the white material of the sky appearing in the form of countless tiny crystals before expanding to cover everything in their vision. It seemed that the chaotic laws themselves had transformed in that imitation of the sky, but they had been careful not to affect powers that went above theirs.

The memories explained why the dark world had remained unaffected by the event, and they even gave Noah a few insights into the actual event. However, they left him unable to find the answers that mattered the most. He couldn't explain why Heaven and Earth had decided to execute such a consuming procedure.

'How long does this stretch?' Noah wondered before glancing at his left hand.

His primary energy, darkness, dark matter, and mental energy flowed inside the black crystal and mixed to create the unstable substance. Yet, the ethereal blackness added a drop of its fuel to the procedure, creating energy that seemed to have the power to turn his insides into dust.

Nothing bad happened to Noah. He actually felt astonished that his black crystal could contain that incredible fuel on his own, and the surprises didn't end there. The unstable substance flowed out of his organ and ran through new black vessels to reach his left arm and fill it with a power he had never wielded.

Noah had merely thought about punching the sky to inspect its insides and testing his new power, but his world had acted even before he made up his mind. He didn't even feel worried about that apparent lack of control. He only experienced satisfaction.

'I see,' Noah thought after understanding what had happened. 'I'm not a normal existence anymore. I'm a world, and a thought is an order that my aspects will fulfill on their own.'

Noah didn't need to decide. Even thinking felt superfluous since his mind was only a part of his world. He only had to be since that already involved eventual choices, inclinations, and preferences.

'It's not lack of control,' Noah chuckled. 'My thoughts are forces that can put my world into motion. I don't need to think because I already know what I want to do. I don't need to decide anything because I've already made up my mind about everything.'

The maniacal character that every existence naturally developed during the cultivation journey reached a new level in the ninth rank. Noah still had a personality, but his world already considered it. It almost felt that his thoughts had transformed into instincts capable of activating certain abilities on their own.

Noah closed his eyes to commit that sensation to memory. He knew that everything would soon turn into his new normality, but he wanted to make sure not to forget that evolution. Noah didn't only wish to expand his understanding of the cultivation journey. He felt the need to remember how much he had changed to remain aware of his roots.

After that feeling became an immortal part of his memories, he threw his punch, and everything shook. A giant chunk of the sky in front of Noah vanished, leaving only primary energy behind, while cracks and boulders appeared and fell everywhere around him.

The perfectly spherical area left behind by the dark world vanished as pieces of the sky fell and opened. A single punch had discharged enough power to tear tens of regions apart, and the most surprising part about the event was the lack of aspects carried by the attack.

Noah had empowered his punch with the unstable substance, and the gesture naturally expressed his world, but that was the bare minimum that he could put into an attack. That blow was very close to his base level.

The primary energy in the shattered area flowed toward Noah even if he didn't activate any technique. His figure attracted sources of power on its own. It seemed an improved version of the magical beasts' natural absorption ability. Still, its range was insane, and its destructiveness also went beyond what normal creatures could do without relying on specific skills.

Noah barely sensed the benefits of that primary energy. He almost lost track of it after it entered the black crystal, and it couldn't do much after flowing toward his flesh.

The destruction of that massive chunk of the sky provided more benefits than the actual absorption of energy. A tremor ran through Noah's world after his attack. The ethereal blackness had tried to expand, but he felt that his feat wasn't enough to grant any improvement. Still, the event had taught him how the rest of his cultivation journey had to proceed.

Noah needed to increase the influence of his world, which required an expansion that he guessed could come from many factions. His incredible feats had always been a powerful fuel for his potential, but he believed that the mere expression of his abilities was enough to provide benefits.

'I only need to let my world express itself to improve it,' Noah concluded after his inspection. 'Still, I don't depend on external energy anymore. I can absorb it, but the greatest benefits seem to come from the fuel inside my world.'

Most of those conclusions came from an instinctive knowledge that his mind had about his ethereal blackness. Noah knew how it worked, what it wanted, and how it desired him to seize it. The matter wasn't even too surprising since he was his world. The latter simply was a pure and unbound version of himself.

Noah almost instinctively stepped inside the cavity created by his punch. He reached its end with a single sprint since time and space bent under the effects of his world to fulfill his desire, and the unstable substance flowed toward his arm again as he prepared another attack.

A series of punches later, Noah found himself deep inside the white material, unable to find a way out of that strange environment. His mind also remained unable to find other empty areas. It was as if the entire higher plane had transformed into an extension of the sky.

****

Author's notes: The third chapter will need another hour or so to be ready.

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