Birth of the Demonic Sword

'Dantian's opening, rank 3 cultivation technique, restricted to cultivators of the darkness element. The practitioner must pierce its low waist and dantian to create a connection between that center of power and the outside world. Then, it can use any rank 2 cultivation technique to cultivate as if it was in the third rank. This practice puts the dantian under heavy stress so it's advised to take long periods of rest between each cultivation session.'

Noah read the description of the technique and became interested.

'It should be like the Three Form of the Ashura, it improves your preexisting technique, bringing it to the next rank. Yet, piercing my dantian seems dangerous.'

The centers of power were powerful but also frail.

They could contain a large amount of energy but they will need a lot of time to recover if they took some damage.

Noah clearly remembered how annoying it was to heal his mental sphere when he first created a Blood companion, he couldn't help but hesitate a bit when he saw the contents of that unorthodox technique.

'The improved version of the Dark vortex technique is the best choice if I'm looking for stability, the Bone marrow draining and the Dantian's opening are faster but also dangerous. Also, I don't have a way to stockpile beasts of the darkness element while I'm in the Coral archipelago so I'm left with two options.'

His mind considered the two cultivation techniques, Noah had simply to choose which one was the best for him.

'The main quality of my Yin body is the healing speed, I should be able to limit the aftereffects of the Dantian's opening with the liquid "Breath" around my heart…'

The more he thought, the more he became interested in the unorthodox technique.

It couldn't be helped, any cultivator would prefer a higher training speed over an average one, anyone would love to improve its strength as fast as it could.

Yet, there were always huge risks together with those advantages, Heaven and Earth were fair, they wouldn't just give away something more powerful for free.

'I'm a criminal, a lone cultivator, a devil, unorthodox techniques suit me the most.'

Noah reached his conclusion.

He valued his training speed over his safety and he was used to practicing unusual techniques.

The Forging of the Seven Hells, the Elemental forging method, the Body-inscription spell, those were all techniques that didn't belong to the orthodox world but that had helped him surpassing the limits of his social status.

He willed and the formation under his palm shone for a while before an old scroll appeared at its center.

Noah stored the scroll in his space-ring and nodded toward Roy, that latter patted his shoulder when he recognized the technique that he had chosen.

"Indeed, a true demon, be careful though, I'd hate to see you injured when you just become a disciple of the sect. Now, follow me, I'll explain the remaining aspects of this place."

Roy took Noah to walk through the whole sect, it took them an entire day to complete their tour.

Noah could see how the Chasing demon sect had many structures, it resembled a smaller version of the academy.

There were the residential areas in the external parts of the headquarters, they were divided by the rank of the disciples living there and had a density of "Breath" that matched their level.

Next to each residential area, there were the teleportation matrixes that were connected with the various islands, their position allowed the disciples to react quickly when an unexpected situation appeared on the surface.

The internal parts of the sect contained the caves of the elders in the heroic ranks together with the various facilities.

The Chasing demon sect had a building where anyone could buy information about the surface, an inventory where precious materials were stored, the building containing the various missions, a research area, and some training areas that offered a better environment compared to the caves.

What surprised Noah the most was that all those services didn't accept Credits as payment but only merit points.

'I guess this method forces everyone to actually work for the sect instead of just relying on their wealth.'

Noah approved that administration, it made the sect more efficient and removed the privileges that a rich person would have, forcing everyone to complete missions if they wanted to have access to the many resources.

Also, the missions themselves weren't only assassinations.

The killing of certain troublesome individuals was the main occupation of the sect but the actual assassination missions were few compared to the other ones.

Most of them concerned the gathering of information about certain topics, or the spying of some building, or even the bribing of some cultivator with an important position in a legal organization.

That, coupled with the merit point system, increased the knowledge and the influence of the sect over the archipelago with each passing day.

Knowledge to exploit the plans of the representatives of the continent, bribes and threats to make use of their structures and organizations, assassinations to remove the difficult individuals, these were the things that the disciples ended up doing to accumulate points.

There were other peculiar missions that required long undercover operations or trips to the continent but Roy explained that those types of works were mostly handled by the other branches of the Hive.

The center of the sect was entirely dedicated to the Chasing Demon, it was its private area, no one was allowed to enter it.

In the end, the tour ended and Roy accompanied Noah toward his cave.

"The sect doesn't force you to complete missions but you should do at least one of them every few months, I don't want to have my mother bugging me because of you."

Roy gave those last words to Noah before he left the residential area, Noah remained alone in front of the entrance of his cave.

The horned face appeared on his palm and the entrance opened, the purple walls moved to make a path for him.

After he entered, the cave sealed itself, leaving him immersed in the purple halo of the single room that was his new habitation.