Noah's body released a burst of golden energy, heralding his advancement to the initial elemental realm.
Unlike Yang Kai in the original story, who managed to advance to the third initial elemental rank, he only reached the first layer because he did not break through the coiling dragon stream, which would have provided him with a large amount of yang energy.
"It's better this way, if I had made my breakthrough in that place I would have alerted the master of the high heaven Pavilion."
Looking at the ten trees filled with sun fruits, Noah grabbed them all and put them in his magic gourd before teleporting to the cave in coiling dragon stream.
Placing the swollen yang stones around him, he pulled out twenty sun fruits and began cultivating again.
Two weeks later, he had easily reached the initial fifth elemental stage.
"I guess I should go to that place, it's almost time."
Turning into an eagle again, he flew towards the horizon.
A couple of hours later, he arrived in front of a mountain range with a large forest in its center.
Returning to his original form, he flew into the forest and began to sense the surroundings by merging his perception and qi.
"There it is."
Running at full speed, he arrived in front of a bunch of red flowers that gave off a rich yang qi.
Wasting no time, he plucked the ground with the flowers and placed it in a pot that he took out of his magic gourd before returning it inside.
Putting the magic gourd away, he continued to explore the area.
He found a couple more bunches of flowers and put them away as well before reaching a cliff.
Climbing to the top of a tree, he pulled out his magic staff and activated his magic barrier before sitting cross-legged on the branch he was standing on.
"Let's see, today is day 4 and that thing won't appear until day 7 so these three days I'll just cultivate."
Pulling a few fruits out of the sun, he gulped them down before starting to condense qi yang.
He was careful and made sure not to absorb any qi from the environment, focusing only on the qi inside the fruits.
If his guess turned out to be correct, that old man and his disciple would come to this place sooner or later so it was better to hide for the time being.
Because of his actions, some events did not occur but others were destined to happen.
Two days later, while meditating, he suddenly felt a presence approaching.
"Interesting, looks like that girl came on her own."
Rubbing his chin, he decided to remain hidden and watch the spectacle.
A young girl dressed in a violet dress with a veil over her face came to the cliff and stood gazing at the landscape for a few moments before she began weaving a hand seal.
With her as the center, an invisible barrier expanded to cover the entire area.
The young woman sat down at a random spot and began to meditate until midnight of the next day arrived.
Feeling a dense wave of yin qi spreading through the surroundings, the young woman stood up and began to observe the surroundings while using a pendant to conjure a barrier to protect herself against the yin qi.
Suddenly, what looked like an icy blue lotus flower bud shot past the young woman's left side.
Becoming alert, the young woman shot out, running after the lotus bud.
Noah, who was at the top of the tree, continued to watch the show until two hours had passed, which was when the lotus bud stopped flying, embedding itself in the ground and opening its petals, revealing a glowing blue sphere inside.
The young girl made a hand seal and a myriad of blue chains materialized in the air, surrounding the blue sphere and restricting its movements.
The girl swallowed a pill before making a solemn face and beginning to approach the sealed sphere.
With each step she took, the shield protecting her was being pulled further and further away.
As she came within a meter of the blue sphere, the young woman's shield broke and the chains restraining the sphere shattered.
A wave of dense yin qi hit the young woman, sending her flying a few feet.
The sphere jerked and was about to fly away but suddenly a golden net formed around it out of nowhere, preventing it from flying away.
The sphere tried to corrode the golden net but to no avail, the energy that formed the net counteracted its own energy.
Noah grabbed the golden net between his hands and looked at the young woman lying on the ground before condensing a knife using yang qi, slicing the blue sphere into two halves before making a cut on his finger, causing a drop of red blood with a faint golden aura to come out.
Noah made the golden net with half of the blue sphere along with the drop of blood float to the young girl, who had recovered a while ago and was now looking at Noah with confusion and caution.
"I don't know whether to praise your bravery or reprimand you for your stupidity, coming to seek the nine yin building dew on your own and without enlisting the help of your master.... You know you could have died right?"
The young woman said nothing, just looked at the young man in front of her with even more confusion.
"To absorb the dew and fully activate your physique you will need that drop of blood, absorb them both together later, now you must heal yourself first."
Noah tossed her a small bottle of healing potion and the girl caught it before looking at Noah with even more doubt on her face.
"Why are you helping me?"
"It's simple, I'm doing you a favor. Sooner or later you'll pay me back."
The young woman looked at Noah warily and clutched her body as she asked with some trepidation.
"What kind of favor?"
Noah rolled his eyes, speechless at the wild thoughts running through this foolish girl's mind.
"Don't worry, you're only 15, I like my women a little more mature."
The girl turned red at her own thoughts.
"What I want from you? Isn't it obvious? Xia Ning Chang? You have the sacred spirit medicine body. Any kind of pill can be created by you if you have the necessary knowledge and cultivation!
If it wasn't because I'm too weak and your master is a madman who wouldn't hesitate to release his seals at the risk of death just to kill me, I would have kidnapped you right now to join my clan!
Although I could do it right now and escape, I still have things to do around here so I'll just give up the chance to have a genius like you in my clan and settle for having your goodwill."
Noah finished speaking and opened a portal behind him, jumping inside and leaving a confused Xia Ning Chang staring at her previous position.
"I have to go talk to master..."
Xia Ning Chang stood up to leave but remembered that she was still injured and still had to absorb the nine yin construction dew.
Sitting down cross-legged, she took a deep breath and opened the healing potion, drinking it and feeling it take effect immediately, healing the wound on her chest in a matter of seconds and replenishing her physical energy.
"Such a magical potion must be worth a lot..."
Xia Ning Chang had many questions in her mind, the mysterious young man from before knew too many things about her and her master, things that even she didn't fully understand but all her questions were thrown to the back of her mind when she focused on the half ball of dew and the drop of blood.
Grabbing both, she tossed them into her mouth, feeling her special physique begin to awaken.
Elsewhere, Noah sat cross-legged and swallowed 10% of the other half of the dew before storing the rest in his magic gourd.
Unlike Yang Kai, who had to go through many trials and it wasn't until he absorbed the dew that the golden skeleton fully merged with him, Noah was fully integrated with him from the very beginning as the skeleton considered him a worthy successor after the first trial.
An enormous amount of energy coursed through Noah's body as he began to advance in rank one after another until he reached the initial ninth elemental stage, stabilizing at the peak, just a little bit away from advancing.
Pulling out a bunch of yang attribute resources, Noah consumed them all before beginning to break through.
A couple of hours later, it seemed as if a seal had been broken inside his dantian as the yang energy in his body became furious, manifesting as a blanket of golden flames covering his entire body.
A storm cloud of over a hundred meters covered the place and a great amount of world energy poured into his body, nourishing him.
Noah tried something daring and manipulated a minuscule amount of world energy to enter his gray mana core, causing a tiny particle of mana to turn a slightly reddish color.
A feeling of ecstasy ran through Noah's mind as he saw his plan succeed and decided to send some more world energy into his mana core.
The initial euphoria quickly faded from his mind as he noticed how it took a large amount of world energy to barely power a particle of mana.
"So inefficient...
Sigh, I guess I'll have to leave it until I reach a high enough level that I can devise a cultivation technique to improve my mana core."
Making up his mind, he stopped wasting the world energy from his baptism and let it fuel only his body and dantian.
A few minutes later, the world energy baptism ended and Noah noticed three energy signatures approaching his position.
"Good thing I decided not to break through into my lair."
The place Noah was currently in was a random spot he chose because it was secluded enough.
Now that visitors were coming, he had to leave.
Opening a portal, he returned to his lair, where he planted the flowers he got from his previous adventure before teleporting back to coiling dragon stream to continue his cultivation.
A few days later, he reached the second stage of qi transformation.
"It's about time, I should start with the preparations."
Noah opened a portal outside the high heaven pavilion and disguised himself as a rice merchant before entering the sect.
After wandering around for a while, he found two individuals who met his standards and began watching them secretly.
A couple of hours later, one of the people he was watching, a young man of the sixth stage of qi transformation, entered his cultivation room.
Noah transformed himself into a mosquito and entered through the window screens, biting the man on the back of the neck and injecting him with a sleeping pill before completely sealing the man's body and sending him to his lair.
He then exited unnoticed and did the same to his second target, a woman.
Two bondage seals flew from between his fingers and embedded themselves in the foreheads of the two people.
"Okay, you can go, you know what to do."
The pair woke up and nodded before passing through portals that took them back to their rooms.