He had a lot of memories of his battles.
From the first time when he fought the rank 1 Four-eyes wolves to his recent fight in the arena, his combat style has always focused on two qualities: speed and sharpness.
He tried to imprint his meaning of sharpness on the dark lake, concentrating on the memories where he killed his enemies in one blow.
The refinement process took a long time.
He had to first synchronize his mental energy with his idea of sharpness and then mix more mental energy in the dark lake to align the nature of the "Breath" with the one that he had set.
Another week passed, with Ivor calmly standing right next to him, waiting for the results of his refinement.
On the night of the seventh day, Noah opened his eyes and stretched and his arm in front of him.
Over his palm, a blue liquid floated peacefully.
Every drop in the small pond resembled a small blade and a faint sense of sharpness was exuded from it.
Ivor immediately neared the liquid and carefully inspected, mumbling from time to time.
"How is it?"
Noah asked expectantly.
"It's definitely too diluted with your mental energy, you can see how its color has completely lost the shades of your element. However, for your first time, the will that you imprinted is definitely above average. You can use this energy to forge a rank 1 low tier item."
Ivor's judgment left him a bit disappointed.
"Just low tier? But I definitely used "Breath" in the liquid stage."
Ivor shook his head.
"There is too much mental energy in it, it has lost some power. Next time, you should refine it directly with mental energy that has a will in it. That way, you will only do one round of refinement, preserving more power of the initial "Breath"."
Noah understood his explanation and nodded.
'The last time, I have refined it simply because I wanted to show it to Ivor but I didn't use any particular will, I just wanted to be able to manipulate it. From now on, I should just render the "Breath" harmless and leave it in my sea of consciousness until I decide what to do with it.'
As he thought of that, an idea popped into his mind.
"Ivor, can't I just take the "Breath" from my dantian? It will shorten the time required in the accumulation process and there will be less power loss during the refinement. I, actually don't know why there are so few notes about this in the books that you gave me."
Ivor looked at Noah with an irritated expression.
"Do you think that it's that common for a cultivator to have his mental sphere at a higher rank than his dantian?"
"…"
Noah was speechless for a moment and realized his peculiar situation.
"So, is it possible?"
Ivor sighed and nodded while he gulped some wine.
"If you can endure the pressure of the "Breath" of your dantian, then yes. Yet, I recommend you to focus on increasing the intensity of your will for now so you would have to mix less mental energy with the "Breath"."
"And how do I do that?"
Noah shrugged his shoulders as he said that.
The notes that he received mostly concerned the various processes, they stated though that the matters about the will were personal and every practitioner had to find his personal way to express it.
"Well, there aren't many general rules on that topic. Usually, strong emotions give birth to strong wills. You should try to empower the meaning that you want to imprint with something that you deeply desire."
'That is quite vague, I guess I can only keep on experimenting until I become good at it.'
"What did you think about when you created the will for your knife?"
At that question, Ivor supported himself on the wall and drank a mouthful of wine.
As he began to speak, a bitter smile appeared on his face.
"You must know that I've never been too interested in cultivation, I was just a simple noble. I fell in love with a beautiful woman and she had the same feeling for me. Yet, my status wasn't good enough and she was then married to another family. From that moment on, the "Attunement" method has been precluded from me. The moment when Heavens and Earth feel that you don't believe in their fairness, you will lose all your chances to ever hear the language of the "Breath"."
Noah's eyes lit up in understanding.
'So, it's not something inborn but it depends on your experiences and thoughts.'
"But I didn't want to give up, she was the love of my life after all. Cultivating until I was strong enough to take her back was too slow so I decided to bet everything on the Elemental forging method as it was the fastest way to increase my power."
"I refined the "Breath" thinking about my love for her and my anger toward the unfairness of the world. I tested the process for two whole years before I finally produced a stable item. I used "Breath" on the level of the solid stage of the third rank of the dantian and obtained an inscribed weapon that could express the battle prowess of the heroic ranks."
'Is he saying that it's possible to surpass the barriers between ranks?'
"I know what you are thinking. It is possible to create something powerful with weak materials but you always need something that increases the level of the item. In my case, it was my will that propelled my creation directly in the heroic ranks."
Noah lowered his head in respect.
'Such strong feelings… I wonder if I have something like that.'
"Yet, a single weapon, no matter how strong it is, can't compare to the full power of a large-size noble family. I was defeated so I chose to create something even more powerful. My current mental sphere is the result of that decision."
Ivor emptied his jar as his story ended and looked at Noah with a bitter smile.
"Our road is contradictory. We require an imponent will to create our items but we also need self-control to know our limits. Focus on the basics and never take a step further unless you are absolutely sure that you have what you require to complete the process. Use your strong emotions to forge and not to guide your actions. Now, get accustomed to the forging. Once you manage to create something stable, I will give you my legacy."
As he said that, he stood up and climbed the stairs to leave Noah alone in the basement.