The sudden event increased the eagerness of the group to uncover the secrets of that separate dimension. Still, they had to take a break before resuming their journey toward the central areas. They wanted to a.s.similate the gains obtained before approaching territories that were bound to be more dangerous.
Their advance resumed, but they paid particular attention to any trace of wind as they moved forward. Dreaming Demon was right when she said that they shouldn"t abuse those chaotic laws, but that didn"t mean that they had to avoid them altogether.
Those laws helped them broaden their understanding of the next step in the heroic ranks and weren"t harmful if taken in small quant.i.ties. Right now, only the two Demons were attempting to wield laws, while the others were still expressing their individualities.
Noah almost lost interest in the magical beasts after that. He would still a.n.a.lyze the creatures that he found along the way, but understanding the structure of the fauna had lost the priority when he found a way to improve his power quickly.
Also, the food chain appeared to be quite simple, and the unique features of the specimens living there weren"t so special either.
The fauna was various, but there was an abundance of magical beasts that could live underground. So many different species normally wouldn"t live in the same regions, even in ones with a terrain that came from the Immortal Lands.
Hence, Noah thought that the G.o.d of the Empire had thrown them there, without caring about creating any balance or functioning ecosystem. He had just let the natural selection take its course.
Of course, that was just a hypothesis. Still, Noah had reasons to believe that the Almighty had never planned to manage the creatures there.
No expert in the magical beasts" field would have put flying creatures in a world where the sky was an enemy. It was just a waste of resources to place beings unsuitable for an environment, and that didn"t act as the primary source of food for the other species.
In Noah"s trained eyes, they were little more than ornaments meant to make that dimension look prettier.
As for the special features, any living being growing and feeding on the fantastic ground of the Immortal Lands would be stronger than its peers. It wasn"t a surprise that the creatures there had better bodies and could launch slightly stronger attacks.
It wasn"t even a matter of "Breath". The energy carried by the magical beasts there was almost the same as the creatures in the outside world.
Still, the constant nurturing of those lands made them grow with natural enhanced abilities. It was as if they were the best version that their species had to offer.
The density of "Breath" increased as they move forward, but the white light radiated by the sky maintained the same intensity. It was a constant, wearing pressure that tried to make its way inside the mental spheres of the beings that it illuminated.
The increased density didn"t affect the humans in Noah"s group. They were heroic cultivators that absorbed the "Breath" inside the matter. That raw form of energy didn"t help in their cultivation.
Yet, it was different for hybrids and magical beasts.
Noah felt rejuvenated whenever he breathed as the group reached the areas where the first creatures in the fifth rank began to appear. There were both plants and beasts in those territories, and the environment completely abandoned its barrenness to make room for various sceneries.
Bushlands, forests, prairie, those territories of the separate dimension offered all kinds of eerie landscapes filled by powerful lifeforms. Also, the wind blew more often too in those areas.
The six cultivators had managed to find only another soft gale as they reached for those lands, but they found two more of them as they explored those places full of life.
There didn"t seem to be an actual connection between those two factors. According to Dreaming Demon"s hypotheses, the higher density of "Breath" had more chances to give birth to that messy acc.u.mulation of laws.
The sky had some influence on that phenomenon too. The experts in the outside world would have seen it happen naturally in the new continent otherwise.
However, the group soon realized that the higher presence of gales didn"t benefit them.
The winds started to become more violent and dense as they pressed forward. They were still somewhat soft, but the number of chaotic laws that they contained had already surpa.s.sed what cultivators on their level were able to handle.
The group switched from searching for gales to avoiding them, with only Dreaming Demon being able to immerse herself in that broader understanding.
Flying Demon struggled when he saw his lover training so hard in those dangerous environments. He had the understanding and power to follow her inside those winds. However, his individuality still carried the scar left by his thousand years spent in the solitude of Divine Architect"s dimension.
His existence was too unstable to merge with those laws and come out intact.
On the other hand, Noah"s attention had gone back to the fauna of that place.
There were dozens of magical beasts in the fifth rank in the few areas that they had explored, and that was only one side of that immense place. There was a high chance that the opposite part of the dimension followed a similar structure and featured the same number of powerful creatures that could help him nouris.h.i.+ng his body.
"Reaching the sixth rank doesn"t seem impossible anymore with the sea, this dimension, and the other world," Noah thought as they crossed another region with seven magical beasts and plants in the fifth rank.
With the winds made of raw laws, an environment that tried to imitate a higher plane, and the various powerful lifeforms, the Mausoleum had earned its claim to have training areas suitable for heroic cultivators.
At some point in their exploration, Noah sensed something strange in the air.
His body and mind gave birth to an innate awareness that even cultivators at higher stages would find it hard to match. Also, his survival instinct was a whole league above humans and simple beasts".
When they reached a prairie that divided the six of them from an azure river, Noah sensed a certain tension in the air, and his body didn"t hesitate to send basic pieces of information to his mind so that it could turn them into actual thought.
It took less than an instant for him to understand the cause of that sensation, and he gestured to the others around him to stop before warning them with a single word. "Ambush."
His warning triggered a reaction from the creatures that were lying in wait, and four giant snakes in the upper tier of the fifth rank materialized on the ground only to pounce at the group of humans.
One of the snakes showed a surprised expression when it saw that Noah had blocked its sneak attack with his bare hand and began to speak human words as panic filled its mind. "We must stash food! The storm is coming!"