Chapter 1188 - 1188. Clear
Noah"s period inside the separate dimension wasn"t as harsh as many others, but he had his fair share of difficulties too.
As soon as the battle against King Elbas ended, Noah"s centers of power suffered from Sword Saint"s final technique"s downsides.
Noah"s life had never been in danger, but he had to rest for a while and let his centers of power recover from that strain. After all, he wasn"t on a level where he could perform that type of attack. He had to rely on his ambition to express a prowess beyond his limits.
After he recovered, he handled the messy situation inside the separate dimension.
There were three organizations and countless cultivators to manage. Noah had to invent a social system that could force those a.s.sets to survive together without endangering their overall strength.
That task revealed itself quite challenging, and Noah had to test different approaches before finding a system that could last for centuries. Luckily for him, he had experienced allies that advised him through that period.
King Elbas" attacks came often in the initial periods inside the separate dimension, so Noah had to work at close contact with Thirty-seven and Flying Demon to manage the traps.
Noah could start to relax after King Elbas" offensive slowed down, but that brought another problem that he had managed to ignore during those tense years.
The lack of threats brought Noah back into a peaceful period when he didn"t have any incentives. That forced him to spend long periods in seclusion to obtain slight improvements.
Any powerhouse would have to face those same challenges, but Noah had never liked that pace. He had always taken the shortest route to power, but he didn"t have any alternative approach in that situation.
In the end, June decided to ask Flying Demon to freeze her, which forced Noah to spent those boring years on his own. Without his lover around, Noah could only spend his time in endless training sessions that brought little results.
Of course, only Noah could consider his improvements slow. Most powerhouses couldn"t even come close to his training speed even on the surface.
Being in the liquid stage of the sixth rank meant that Noah had to push his existence in the realm of the laws. He didn"t need to improve the quant.i.ty or the quality of his darkness anymore. The cultivation journey forced him to focus on the purity of his individuality now.
The true meanings carried by the laws were pure expressions of power, and Noah had to turn his vast existence into something similar.
Noah"s law was an expression of his ambition. It forced his power to reach peaks that his cultivation levels had yet to see, and it pushed his prowess on leagues that were still at a few decades from his current state.
The law of ambition relied on Noah"s potential. Since he knew that he would reach those heights, his individuality allowed him to obtain a speck of that power for a short period.
Still, that couldn"t possibly be the only aspect of his individuality, especially since his existence carried various characteristics. The only problem was that Noah struggled to find them due to his slow improvements.
Four hundred years had to pa.s.s before Noah began to consider the idea of leaving the separate dimension.
King Elbas destroyed every sensor he found, but the automaton kept sending new ones into the outer world whenever he opened a new door. That allowed the Hive to gather some data before the Royal took care of them again.
The Royals" leader even stopped destroying the sensors at some point, so the Hive slowly regained vision of the situation on the surface. Most of it wasn"t visible due to new formations that had appeared there, but Noah"s focus had never been on that.
The sensors of the Hive mainly pointed at the sky. All the a.s.sets were waiting for when the Heaven Tribulation would arrive and bring King Elbas to the seventh rank.
Noah"s last line to King Elbas wasn"t a taunt. He had meant his words back then.
King Elbas had managed to defeat an entire world, so Noah had no intention to fight him anymore. In his opinion, the Royal would surely reach the Immortal Lands, so he didn"t need to settle his grudges there.
Moreover, Noah didn"t manage to feel completely angry about King Elbas. The Royal had killed Chasing Demon and forced the Hive to run away, but he was an existence worthy of respect.
Noah couldn"t think of anyone more worthy of the Immortal Lands than King Elbas, and he knew that he wouldn"t be able to beat him as long as he remained in the liquid stage.
King Elbas" expertise in the inscription fields alone made him a perfect candidate for the higher plane. Still, his cultivation level had always been equally impressive, so that sealed the matter for Noah.
"I have today"s reports," Flying Demon announced when he entered a hall filled with icy pillars that contained cultivators. "Nothing out of the ordinary. The sky is clear."
Noah was in front of the pillar containing June when he heard those words, and a sigh escaped his mouth. King Elbas was still somewhere in the lower plane. The organizations couldn"t go out just yet.
"There have been small troubles with the hybrids and the Shandal Empire," Flying Demon continued. "Do you want to hear about them?"
Noah thought about the matter for a second, but he eventually shook his head. He didn"t care about any of those issues, and he had appointed his underlings there already.
Flying Demon saw that answer and sighed. His gaze remained on Noah for a few seconds before he decided to walk toward him.
The Demon sat next to Noah while inspected him with a curious expression. However, some surprise appeared on Noah"s face when he saw Flying Demon taking out a jug of wine from his s.p.a.ce-ring.
"I thought we had finished the wine three hundred years ago!" Noah exclaimed as a cup appeared in his hands.
"I"ve kept this hidden until now," Flying Demon said as a laugh escaped from his mouth. "I planned to drink this after we came out of the dimension, but you seem to need it more than me."
"I"m just bored," Noah replied as he stretched the hand holding the cup.
Flying Demon smirked at that sight and poured some wine for him and Noah before their gaze went on the pillars filling the room.
"Boredom is part of a powerhouse"s life," Flying Demon said after he took a sip from his cup. "I still remember Master causing troubles whenever he met a bottleneck or completed his projects."
"I think you have more experience in living inside prisons for centuries," Noah replied, and Flying Demon showed an ugly expression before exploding into a loud laugh.
"How much did we lose in these years?" Noah asked after a while.
"We didn"t lose," Flying Demon said as he checked the reports acc.u.mulated through the years. "Our power has increased, but not as much as we wished. I bet the Elbas family will be far stronger than before once we come out of here."
"We"ll fight anyway," Noah replied.
"Of course," Flying Demon continued as his expression become cold. "I want to get rid of the rust on these old bones right away."
Noah"s expression became cold too at those words, and they both continued to stare at the pillars as they shared that jug of wine. In their minds, they could only think of the moment when they could finally come out in the open to reclaim what they had lost against King Elbas.
Unfortunately for them, they had to wait for another one hundred years before their sensors picked up signs of black clouds covering a large chunk of the sky.