Chapter 1775 - 1775. Familiar
Noah felt honestly happy that Daniel had decided to step up and do everything in his power to advance through the cultivation journey. The cultivator"s light shared some common ground with Heaven and Earth, but it was also different.
Daniel only wanted to learn from Heaven and Earth"s idea of purity to improve. Noah had studied the world in the past to grow, so he couldn"t say much about the matter. His hate toward the rulers didn"t make him deny that chance to his friend.
The mission didn"t require other preparations after Shafu"s birth. Noah only had to wait for the dragon to stabilize its character before departing, and his teammates didn"t mind spending a few weeks cultivating in the area.
The group departed after Shafu developed a fully-fledged personality that didn"t carry unstable features. The experts jumped on its back and flew high in the sky as they left the black landma.s.s.
Shafu"s power didn"t hurt the weaker experts on its back, but its innate suction force made them almost unable to cultivate. The energy in the environment flowed toward the creature, so the team needed to steal from those thin currents.
Of course, that was barely enough to activate their centers of power. The world was basically devoid of energy since most of it was inside the few remaining giants or had already fused with the sky. Shafu"s suction force only worsened the situation since it had priority over that power.
Noah could take Shafu"s energy and make it flow toward his centers of powers, but he found no reason to do so. The dragon wasn"t absorbing much, and it needed that fuel to shape the separate dimension inside its body.
Shafu had a separate s.p.a.ce, but it was a mere empty area covered by dark matter now. The creature needed a lot of energy to turn it into a proper dimension that could suit armies of magical beasts, and the only source of fuel was in the giants.
Noah waited for a few years before allowing Shafu to attack the rare giants on the path. Their new position wouldn"t affect the black landma.s.s even if King Elbas decided to move it, so the dragon could go all-out and show its true potential.
The scene ended up being quite anticlimactic. Shafu was immense, and the level of most of the giants had already fallen under the middle tier of the eighth rank. The dragon only needed to open and close its mouth to eat those whole structures in one bite.
Noah kept track of Shafu"s organs the first times it ate giants. He had tested its innate ability already, but everything could take a wrong turn since the rulers" laws filled those structures.
Shafu"s stomach could contain entire giants, and they didn"t take much to transform into waves of energy once they reached that organ. Then, the fuel would flow toward the separate s.p.a.ce inside the dragon and force it to develop lands according to a specific pattern that Noah had decided beforehand.
Those patterns were mostly generic now since the separate dimension lacked magical beasts. Barren plains and mountains made by the rea.s.sembled energy obtained from the giants began to appear in the separate s.p.a.ce and created a close environment where the fuel couldn"t escape.
Those features would change once the first magical beasts settled in the environment. Shafu"s separate s.p.a.ce would adapt to those creatures and develop lands that better suited their species.
Shafu had to keep part of that energy for itself, but its consumption wasn"t high since the dark matter that made its fabric stored a lot of power. The dragon wasn"t even fighting, so its requirements were even lower.
The team marveled at how easily Shafu ate the giants. They even felt slightly envious of the creature since it had priority over those sources of energy. Still, they didn"t complain due to the obvious necessity of feeding the dragon first.
The magical beasts" domain had been the largest windless part of the Immortal Lands. Noah would take centuries to cross all of it even when relying on Shafu"s high speed, and he even failed to find packs of magical beasts during the initial period.
It wasn"t hard to keep track of s.p.a.ce, especially for Noah. He could sense when his group entered the previous magical beasts" domain, but the initial years of exploration didn"t show any survivor.
Yet, it seemed that the magical beasts" domain had generated more giants with its regions, and Shafu never spared them. The separate dimension inside its body developed quickly during the travel, and it soon reached a size that left Noah reasonably satisfied.
A peculiar sight eventually unfolded in the group"s eyes. Shafu had dived toward a giant to eat it, and a black region appeared in the distance right under the structure.
Noah felt a familiar feeling when that region entered the range of his consciousness. He knew exactly what that land was. He had created it when he was on the other side of the Immortal Lands.
Shafu took care of the giant before absorbing that region into its body. The dragon didn"t eat the land. It only moved it in a s.p.a.ce not connected with the developing separate dimension.
More black regions or shattered environments that Noah, Robert, and the Foolery had tainted during the mission on the other side of the Immortal Lands appeared on the path as the group dived deeper into the old magical beasts" domain.
Most of them were mere chunks of the regions that Noah had transformed in the past, but he couldn"t do much about the matter. It was clear that his work on the other side had been far from perfect, which had led to the shattering of many mutated lands.
Those chunks were still valuable, so Noah made Shafu store them as the exploration progressed. The entire group even began to lose hope as the first centuries pa.s.sed without finding any trace of magical beasts, but Noah kept going. A single pack would make the entire journey worth it.
Noah"s companions struggled to understand his dedication to that task, but they didn"t think too much about it since his reasons often had crazy plans behind them. However, he wasn"t hiding much at that time. He only wanted to gather troops that couldn"t possibly side with Heaven and Earth.
His senses eventually picked up something. Traces of life hidden among fighting giants entered the range of Noah"s consciousness and made Shafu take a sharp turn in that direction.
A peculiar scene soon unfolded in the groups" vision. Two giants at the peak of the middle tier were fighting to shatter themselves, but their energy flowed into a black land hovering nearby.
The black region had a large group of familiar figures resting on both sides of its surface. A layer of silver ice even reinforced that land and encircled most of it.
"Their name is definitely fitting," Noah laughed in his mind when he inspected the pack of Eternal Snakes.
The creatures were living near the two giants to create an environment that could provide some energy. The pack had shrunk after the apocalypse, but it still featured many powerful specimens.
The Eternal Snakes couldn"t fail to sense Noah"s arrival. He was standing on a ma.s.sive black dragon that was bigger than the giants. Shafu basically was an immense source of energy for every starving creature.
The leader of the Eternal Snakes woke up and unfolded its upper tier aura, but anger soon flowed into its power when it recognized Noah. A shrill hiss came out of its mouth at that point, and Noah"s mind quickly translated that cry into the word "traitor".