Three months had passed since Noah began training seriously with his new power. Now, standing atop a rocky hill, he observed the largest target he had encountered so far: a crocodile over a hundred meters long, with scales as thick as metal plates and sunken eyes that glowed with a dim intelligence.
It was slow, heavy, but its size and resilience made it a good target to test his power.
"Time to see how far I've come," he murmured.
Noah raised his hand, and instantly, an overwhelming pressure filled the area.
"Susanoo."
The air distorted as a colossal figure took shape behind him. His Susanoo had a defined silhouette, clad in dark red armor, with six extended arms and four wings that moved calmly. Its entire body burned with cyan flames that swayed gently, like embers floating in the air.
In its three right hands, three Truth-Seeking Balls appeared, stretching into massive black swords with a simplistic design.
The crocodile raised its head and roared.
The Susanoo stepped forward, and the three swords moved simultaneously. One slash sliced through the beast's jaw, another pierced through its torso, and the third cut it diagonally from back to ground.
The crocodile's body collapsed, split into sections. Steam rose from the wounds, seared by chakra. The Susanoo remained silent for a few seconds before dissolving into bursts of energy that returned to Noah's body through the diamond-shaped tattoo on his hand.
Noah looked down at the corpse, evaluating his current power level before nodding.
"I need a proper fight that forces me to use all my abilities, but just from this, I can estimate that my full power might be enough to destroy a mid-sized country in a single full-power attack... My body also seems ready to handle another genetic recombination now that it's adapted to the previous ones."
Back in his lab, he grabbed two genetic serums and injected them one after the other. His body rippled like jelly for a moment before returning to normal.
The two new kekkei genkai he had absorbed corresponded to Magnet Release and Storm Release. The first allowed him to be essentially a weaker version of Magneto, while the second granted him control over the weather to generate storms.
"Now I just need to adapt to these new kekkei genkai for a while, and then I'll be able to merge the remaining ones."
Now, Noah only had three elemental-type kekkei genkai left: Ice Release, Lava Release, and Steel Release. He already possessed Wood Release, and this world had granted him access to both Light and Darkness Release.
Once these three kekkei genkai were fused, he would gain access to all seven chakra elements and their six variations.
Rising from the ground, Noah made his way to a section of the lab where a massive wooden orb, around 10 meters in diameter, floated. Surrounding it were multiple capsules containing identical humanoid figures.
These were Isshiki clones that Noah had transmuted using Philosopher's Stones. They were clones not just of Isshiki's body but also of his soul—in other words, pure Ōtsutsuki.
The massive wooden orb was actually the Jūbi that Isshiki had sealed within the special dimension of his Kōkugan. After devouring one of the clones, the creature had turned into this being, which was, in reality, the seed of the Divine Tree.
Noah had been studying this seed for the past three months, trying to reprogram it for his own purposes.
He had succeeded—partially. He managed to reprogram it to suit his current plans, though not his future ones. He altered the seed so that, when germinated, it would not condense a chakra fruit but rather a fruit that would contain a purified bloodline, absorbing the bloodlines of magical beasts that had died over millennia.
In this way, Noah could recreate the ancient bloodlines of titans, dragons, and others.
But Noah's goal was never as simple as acquiring an Emperor-rank bloodline from some ancient creature; he wanted to create the Law Bloodline—the one the Reapers had failed to produce.
To do that, the Chakra Tree's help was essential. Unfortunately, his knowledge and resources were far from sufficient to allow the tree to absorb the laws themselves and condense their essence.
"I guess I shouldn't be too greedy. For now, let's settle for recreating the ancient bloodlines."
Removing the wooden orb from its capsule, he carried it outside and dropped it in the center of the continent. The Divine Tree seed immediately extended its roots and buried itself in the ground.
"Who should I start with?"
After thinking for a minute, Noah brought out two pairs of enormous feathered creatures from his lab. The first was a male and female fire phoenix pair, purified from the bloodlines of lesser phoenixes, like Dumbledore's companion, Fawkes.
The second pair were thunder phoenixes, purified from the Thunderbird bloodline. Both creatures shared the same ancestor: the pure-blood phoenix.
The four creatures were currently in their juvenile stages, but their power was unrivaled in this world, and no other being could threaten them.
Noah implanted multiple mental imprints that would make them reproduce only with their own kind, while fostering hatred for the other species. This way, he ensured that the fire and thunder phoenixes would constantly be at war. Only through this would they provide the Divine Tree with enough nutrients.
He sent them far away before beginning to carve a formation around the Divine Tree's area. He created a concealment array that would keep the tree hidden from those birds for the next few centuries until it grew strong enough.
Then he simply created an underground cave, took out his time machine, and traveled a thousand years into the future.
Fortunately, when he exited the cave, he saw the Divine Tree was still standing.
"Looks like this world will stay unnoticed by the Ōtsutsuki for this millennium."
Teleporting to the top of the tree, he saw that on its surface had grown a tiny fruit the size of a fist. It resembled a blood-red peach, surrounded by glowing embers and occasionally crackling with arcs of lightning.
Frowning, Noah approached to examine the fruit.
"It has immense vitality, but this size…"
After numerous analyses, Noah finally understood. The fruit wasn't yet mature; it was still growing. Previously, the fruit would condense in just a thousand years, feeding only on the biological data of lesser creatures. But now, interaction with a higher-quality biological source had caused its quality—and thus the time required for maturity—to increase exponentially.
From the treetop, Noah watched the horizon where golden-feathered birds with six wings soared calmly across the sky, hunting and feeding on beasts. Suddenly, a red bird wrapped in flames dove at the golden one, and the two began to fight.
"Looks like everything is going according to plan."
Returning to the cave, he traveled another 9,000 years into the future. As expected, everything remained unchanged. The fruit continued to mature, now reaching the size of a human, but it still wasn't enough—it wasn't yet ripe.
After checking it, Noah calculated that the fruit would require a total of 100,000 years to fully mature. He returned to the machine and jumped another 90,000 years into the future, but what he found was a desolate landscape—a withered, lifeless world.
"Tsk. I forgot that the planet's vitality would run out sooner or later."
Raising his hand, the massive tree behind him was ripped from the ground and shrank down to a meter in size. Noah grabbed it and returned to the past.
Uprooting the seed that had been slowly extending its roots, he placed the tree in its stead, and it once again grew to its original size, stretching toward the sky.
Noah appeared at the treetop and sighed when he saw that the fruit had only managed to double its previous size.
"Looks like I only have 20,000 years before I need to replant the tree again."
Thus, Noah had to travel 20,000 years into the future four more times, completing the 100,000-year maturation cycle required for the fruit.
Before Noah now stood an enormous fruit, over ten meters tall, engulfed in fire and lightning. With a wave of his hand, the fruit shrank until it fit in his palm.
Then he snapped his fingers, and the four phoenixes appeared before him, their eyes clouded with confusion. Without giving them time to react, Noah opened his vertical eye, and runes engraved on the skin of the four beasts began to glow.
The phoenixes roared and struggled, but wooden hands rose from below and immobilized them.
The Eye of Truth fired a beam of light that enveloped the four birds, and a transmutation circle lit up beneath them. Unable to resist, the phoenixes began to melt into red blood that pooled in the center of the circle, forming a massive red-and-gold egg.
What Noah had just created was nothing less than a homunculus.
The fruit in his hand floated toward the egg and sank into a crack that opened on its surface.
With a wave of his hand, Noah sent the egg into the Kamui dimension.