Chapter 1576 1576. Dive
"Dive underground!" Noah roared before punching the terrain.
The storms almost suppressed his voice. His companions barely managed to hear Noah, but they imitated him once they realized how dangerous that environment was.
Thick currents of chaotic laws were dense. They crashed on Noah and the others and shattered their skin. Even their centers of power felt unable to express their might under that suppression.
Noah managed to create a deep cavern with Jordan and Wilfred"s help. The chaotic laws seeped in that hole, but the experts promptly dug multiple branches that dispersed those currents.
The group eventually gathered in a large underground hall that Noah had by shattering one of the tunnels. That quick contact with the storms had killed most of the rank 7 experts and injured their leaders. Their overall condition was awful, especially since they had yet to recover from the ambush.
"I told you that the teleport wasn"t ready!" King Elbas complained.
"Possible death is better than certain death," Noah sighed. "How far can we even be from the Legion? I don"t think you messed up with the amount of energy."
"Teleports work strangely in the Immortal Lands," King Elbas explained. "They don"t send our bodies to another location. They allow us to cut through s.p.a.ce itself, similar to what I did with the dimensional tunnel."
"What are you trying to say?" Noah asked as a bad feeling surged in his mind.
"I"m saying that we might be lost," King Elbas replied before taking a few items from his s.p.a.ce-ring and placing them on the ground. "I will try to understand where we are, but creating a teleport here is impossible at my level. The chaotic laws will disturb my inscriptions."
"You heard Elbas," Noah shouted to the group. "Focus on recovering for now. These lands are incredibly dangerous."
The images of Sword Saint"s memory flashed in Noah"s mind, but he quickly suppressed them. He didn"t even want to consider the possibility of meeting a rank 9 existence.
The experts followed his orders and began to deploy healing techniques. The cultivators didn"t manage to take away much from their headquarters since they didn"t plan to migrate, but they had a few potions and pills at their disposal.
King Elbas used that chance to take out his inscribed habitations. Jordan and the other rank 8 cultivators entered them to accelerate their recovery, and Noah didn"t mind using those structures.
The ground was tough and full of energy. Noah could use his flames, but he preferred to avoid using attacks until he felt sure that the area was safe. It didn"t hurt him to resort to normal healing sessions for the time being.
The experts recovered and let King Elbas thinker with his inscribed items. Unfortunately, he seemed unable to pinpoint their exact location due to the interference of the chaotic laws, so he eventually started to build other tools that could ignore that hindrance.
No threat appeared on their path. The experts could recover in peace and discuss their situation after a few years spent in seclusion.
"I have understood where we have to go," King Elbas explained once all the experts gathered around him. "Still, we have a problem with the distance of the travel. We are so far away that my inscribed notebook can"t reach the Legion."
"This I already good," Noah added. "We can start moving then. No point remaining here any longer."
"How do you plan on making this journey?" Pearl asked. "We can"t travel on the surface. The voices about you must be true. You bring chaos and destruction wherever you go."
Noah would normally contest those complaints, especially since he technically was Pearl"s leader now. However, the expert had lost too much in the last period. Most of her friends and underlings had died. Her entire world had turned upside down after a single meeting.
Noah decided to ignore the complaints and show Pearl how he intended to handle the situation. He neared a wall and threw a punch on its rocky surface.
The wall crumbled, and a large hole appeared. Noah turned and pointed at the cavity before explaining the meaning behind his actions.
"We"ll punch our way back to the Legion," Noah announced. "Don"t worry. This isn"t my first time."
Pearl had no idea how to react to that gesture. She didn"t feel surprised about Noah"s physical strength. She remained speechless at the thought that Noah was willing to dig under entire regions to return home.
"I"m an expert in the magical beasts" field, but you surpa.s.s me there," King Elbas said while looking at the hole. "I guess I need to rely on you for this task."
Noah nodded before explaining all the precautions that he had in mind. He didn"t mind punching thousands of kilometers of tough ground for years, but the group had to take care of containing their presence.
The expert had to hide their auras, create something that could contain the noises generated by their attacks, and avoid leaving traces.
Avoiding magical beasts was a must in that environment. The fauna of the stormy regions was something that the group couldn"t face at their level.
King Elbas took care of the technicalities. He deployed a golden gas around Noah, Wilfred, and Jordan to absorb all the sounds around them. A series of puppets also appeared behind him and began to burn any trace left by his companions.
At last, King Elbas took out an inscribed drill to help the three hybrids in the task. Of course, he covered the item with the same golden smoke used on the trio.
Noah, Wilfred, and Jordan began their annoying task at that point. The tough rocks prevented them from picking up speed, but they still managed to advance at a decent pace.
Pearl and the few rank 7 cultivators who had survived the chaotic laws couldn"t believe their eyes. They saw the three hybrids punching the rocks for entire months without ever taking a break. Their stamina was otherworldly!
Noah and the others didn"t dig all the time. They had to take multiple breaks to perform training sessions. Their centers of power needed that constant maintenance.
Noah used those breaks to study the new pieces of Great Builder"s inheritance. A quick read to the three books immediately allowed him to solve his issue with the rank 8 creations. Noah realized that he had ignored an important aspect of those powerful beings.
"I"m so blind at times," Noah exclaimed in his mind while holding the fourth piece of Great Builder"s inheritance. "Rank 7 magical beasts are easy because they don"t need specific laws. Mines are perfectly fine for the task. However, those in the eighth rank need something more specific."
Noah had created the structure and the insides of a rank 8 magical beast, but he didn"t give them domains. His approach would have never worked because his products were no more than simple puppets rather than actual replicas of rank 8 creatures.
"I see," Noah thought while continuing to study the tomes. "Great Builder describes two approaches to solve that issue. The first is to inscribe your materials beforehand. The second is to improve the fake cores."
Noah could immediately understand what he had to do. The first approach couldn"t work in his case because he used dark matter as his sole material. However, the second was quite feasible.