Noah began to question himself about the potential of the Elemental forging method during his seclusion.

His a.s.sumption was a bit hurried since he had only spent one year on his experiments after all.

Yet, those doubts couldn't help but appear when he saw that he didn't make any progress in his project.

He knew that creating a personal version of the darkness element was an ambitious plan, which was probably above what his expertise and power could handle.

However, making no progress at all opened the possibility that he was using the wrong approach on the matter.

Noah silently stared at the primary energy generated whenever he released part of his liquid "Breath".

Wills and thick mental waves came out of his sea of consciousness and tried to change the nature of that energy.

Nevertheless, that primary energy was too slim and couldn't carry meanings.

Noah's efforts just pushed it farther away until it dispersed in the environment.

Then, Noah released some of his Liquid "Breath" again, and his half-transparent figure neared the walls of his mental sphere to absorb the primary energy created in the process.

Noah almost didn't feel any pressure when that energy entered his mind, but he was used to that feature by then.

The energy entered the sea, but nothing had changed in its structure when it resurfaced.

'One year has pa.s.sed, but I can't even take the first step. Meanings aren't enough. I need laws.'

Noah thought as he dispersed that energy back in the environment.

He had repeated those processes for one year, but he still failed in imbuing his will inside that material.

He had tried everything, from creating a solution of Liquid "Breath" and primary energy, to fuse the new material with various items directly.

The outcome was always the same: He couldn't control that energy, he could only absorb it.

That had never happened to him during his past forgings.

There would be different outcomes of slight signs of progress with his past creations, even when he created his cultivation technique.

He would progressively find flaws and fix them until the final product became somewhat stable.

That wasn't happening with the primary energy.

Noah felt as if he was. .h.i.tting a wall every time he attempted to bend that material to his will.

He felt as if he was using usual blacksmithing tools to modify atoms!

That outcome led him to evaluate two hypotheses.

The first one saw his mental sphere unable to use wills that could affect the primary energy.

Simple wills and meanings could change the structure of the "Breath", but it seemed that only laws could give a shape to that primordial power.

That led him to accept that his sea of consciousness was still too weak.

However, he didn't give up on using that energy so connected with his individuality, which made him work on his second hypothesis.

'The Elemental forging method has limits like every inscription method. It might not be suitable for this practice, or it might just be imperfect at its core. I need to talk with the automaton.'

Noah concluded in his mind and immediately left his underground quarters while sending a series of mental messages.

The elders quickly set a meeting with Thirty-seven, who had been extremely busy in the last year.

The Hive had used the automaton to review their formations and improve them thoroughly.

Thirty-seven did a fantastic job in that task, and the Hive invested a lot of resources to apply all the enhancements proposed by him.

Also, the Hive had even purchased many studies in the inscriptions' fields to improve the knowledge of the automation.

After all, Thirty-seven had stopped learning six thousand years ago, and the cultivation world had advanced in that period.

The Hive couldn't allow him to remain in that state since the future of its inscription masters depended on him.

So, Thirty-seven obtained many tomes and scrolls and instantly became one of the most knowledgeable existence about inscriptions in the entirety of the Mortal Lands.

Some elders even believed that there wasn't a single being in possession of so much information, but that only organizations could match his knowledge!

Noah reached for the desert after the lava lake and landed on the ground when he saw the ethereal man.

The automaton held a tome open in his right hand and drew with a long, black stick on the yellow sand of the desert.

He seemed focused on some kind of project, but he didn't fail to notice Noah's arrival.

"Make it quick. Your Patriarch has promised me a lost script of the Lesser demon sect if I manage to help you!"

Thirty-seven said when Noah landed next to him.

'Lesser demon sect? Is Chasing Demon scamming him now?'

Noah suppressed that thought as he took a pile of books from his s.p.a.ce-ring.

The books were old and still carried traces of Ivor's awful smell, but the automaton didn't care about it and quickly browsed through their contents.

Those old pages contained all the studies of the Elemental forging method that Noah still carried with him since Ivor pa.s.sed down his teachings.

However, it had been a long time since Noah used them as a reference.

No other cultivator that he knew of had reached his cultivation level while using that inscription method, so Noah couldn't find anything helpful anymore in that knowledge.

Thirty-seven read the more than twenty books in less than a minute, and took about forty seconds to sort out the information contained inside them,

He was a rank 6 automaton programmed for inscriptions.

His learning capabilities would scare even rank 6 cultivators when it came to his field of expertise.

"So, what do you want?"

Thirty-seven asked as he handed back Ivor's books.

"Do you think that it's flawed?"

Noah asked while storing back everything in his s.p.a.ce-ring.

The automaton snorted at his question, but his answer left Noah quite surprised.

"Of course! This method is vague in so many aspects, but I think it's some kind of requirement in this case. The inscriptions would be extremely personal after all. You can't have a set discipline for that."

Noah attentively listened to his words.

He was expecting the automaton to list an endless number of flaws and possible improvements, but what happened was precisely the opposite.

'The Elemental forging method must remain flawed, or it wouldn't be suitable for the various meanings of the cultivators. It makes sense, but it doesn't solve my issue.'

Noah wielded his saber as he thought that and released part of his "Breath" to create the primary energy that he had tried to modify in the last year.

"I want to use this energy, but my wills don't affect it in the slightest."

The automation understood what Noah wanted after those words, but his intentions made him laugh.

Noah didn't mind that reaction since he knew that his project was ambitious, even if his mind was reaching the upper stages of the fourth rank.

Yet, Thirty-seven confirmed his hypothesis with his next words.

"That's the realm of the G.o.ds. You need laws."