Chapter 1327 1327. Free
The rules of the inscription halls were quite simple. There could be special ones depending on the structures" owners, but most of them followed the same guidelines.
They allowed inscription masters to show their expertise for a set amount of time freely, and the audience watching them could decide to make offers about their complete products.
The same applied to the owners. They could place offers and bid against the audience for the purchase of the inscribed items.
The owners would have an advantage in the auctions since they were partially unaffected by the barriers. They could study the complete products" power better than the cultivators outside the inscription halls, but everyone knew about that feature.
Actually, the fact that the owners decided to bid on certain inscribed items usually made the audience more set on purchasing them. It showed that the product had some value.
Of course, the masters that had created the inscribed item could refuse to sell after they heard the price, but that was a rare outcome. Most experts entered the inscription halls intending to gain fame and money, so they would usually accept any form of compensation for their work.
The first Instability created by Noah had attracted the attention of some of the owners. An ancient voice had resounded among the audience and had placed a bidding price of five Soul Stones.
That number of Soul Stones was nothing unusual for the citizens of the Immortal Lands, but it showed the owners" interest in Noah"s product. A series of bids followed that, but they stopped when they saw Noah"s completing a second Instability.
Noah didn"t stop after his first success. He was unaware of what was happening around him since he remained focused on perfecting the procedure. The Divine Deduction technique also activated on its own due to how concentrated he was.
The second complete Instability came out as a rank 7 disposable weapon near the lower tier"s halfway mark. Noah studied it for a while before storing it inside the separate s.p.a.ce and taking out more pieces of skin to resume his forgings.
Noah didn"t feel satisfied with those Instabilities. Normal inscribed items could fall short in terms of power since cultivators would pair them with their abilities, but the same didn"t apply to disposable weapons.
Even if the Instabilities didn"t require many materials, Noah still lost pieces of skin in the divine ranks during the forging. It wasn"t hard for him to gather more of them, but he would rather eat them if he couldn"t create anything decent.
Disposable weapons needed to be as powerful as spells or more to justify their consumption of materials. That was an unwritten rule among cultivators. No one would decide to use weak items when they had access to stronger abilities.
"They must be in the upper part of the lower tier to have any use among gaseous stage cultivators," Noah thought as he dived back into the Elemental Forging method.
His ambition continued to alter the matter around him and fuel the wills that fused with his darkness. His individuality was the key behind the success of his inscriptions, so he couldn"t turn it off for now.
Noah wasn"t going all-out. His ambition wasn"t pus.h.i.+ng his centers of power beyond his structural limits. He was using his individuality only to strengthen his wills and create an energy that could replace the laws inside the skin"s structure.
The drawbacks would be mild after that procedure, but Noah expected to experience a slight headache after he suppressed his individuality. He had to pay the price for his current power, but his centers of power wouldn"t suffer since his ambition had mostly flowed inside his wills.
The third Instability appeared in the open, and Noah stored it inside the separate s.p.a.ce. The disposable weapon had bordered the halfway mark of the lower tier again, so he decided to change approach.
Noah began to use the primary energy to stuff the Instabilities with power after his third complete product. He had to polish the procedure to obtain better results, and he took that chance to perfect the new blueprint for those disposable weapons.
No failures followed his change of approach. Noah had gained enough experience with the divine materials during his previous forging, so the resilience of their laws didn"t hinder his inscriptions anymore.
Moreover, the primary energy had a few advantages. It was lighter than the darkness and the dark matter, so the Instabilities could contain far more of it. The weapons would also grow unstable more rarely due to those features.
Noah lost track of the pa.s.sage of time, and a day eventually pa.s.sed while he remained immersed in his creations. However, no one stopped him. The owners of the inscription hall even instructed the guards to leave him be.
The cultivators among the audience could hear those directives, and their excitement rose when they understood that the owners were publicly recognizing Noah.
Rumors soon spread among Vagona city. The customers of the various inscription halls had tight connections, so it didn"t take much for a crowd to form around the structure where Noah was performing inscriptions.
"He sure looks young!" One of the cultivators in the audience exclaimed once he managed to see Noah.
"He has created more than ten inscribed items, and their power keeps growing!" Another cultivator said to reply to the previous exclamation.
"How many materials does he even have?" A third cultivator asked.
"Maybe he belongs to the inscription hall of another city," Someone else guessed.
"This structure belongs to the Balrow family," One of the original customers said to correct the rumors. "The Monneay family owns the most popular inscription halls in Vagona city, but its compet.i.tors are on the same level."
The price for Noah"s Instabilities continued to increase as the crowd around the inscription hall grew. More wealthy cultivators placed their bids and challenged the Balrow family in the auction.
Noah slowly perfected the procedure. He was about to run out of materials after he completed his thirtieth Instability. Still, his creations" power was steadily striving toward the lower tier"s peak after his many tests.
"The next one should be almost perfect," Noah thought as he continued to forge.
Creating inscribed weapons filled him with a strange sensation now that he worked with divine materials. Noah felt his individuality growing as he used it to alter the laws inside the matter. He felt as if he could finally cross the bottleneck that had forced him to leave the wilderness.
The thirty-first Instability couldn"t reach the peak of the lower tier either, but Noah didn"t feel discouraged by that event. Perfection required many tests, and he had just begun to learn how to handle divine materials.
Yet, Noah had now depleted all his materials, and that made him curse in his mind. His desire to complete the procedure had taken over his initial intentions.
Noah saw a crowd of cultivators staring at him from the other side of the entrance. He initially turned to see if someone else was behind him, but he soon accepted that their gazes were for him.
The white-haired cultivator had also stopped inscribing to stare at him. The exhaustion of his materials didn"t seem the main issue anymore in that situation.
"Why did you stop?" The ancient voice resounded again, but Noah could hear that it came from an old-looking cultivator that had materialized in front of him.
The cultivator was a bald man who had a thin white beard that reached his belly. He wore a luxurious green robe, but burns filled his sleeves and ruined those otherwise spending clothes. He kept his eyes closed, so Noah couldn"t see their color for now.
Still, the detail that caught Noah"s attention the most was his cultivation level. The expert was a rank 7 cultivator in the solid stage, but no laws leaked out of his figure.
"I"m out of materials," Noah honestly replied.
The cultivator nodded and rubbed his beard as he waved his free hand. After his gesture, a series of barrels materialized next to him, and Noah could see how they contained different rank 7 materials in the lower tier.
"You can use them," The cultivator said. "Don"t worry. I"m giving them for free."