Chapter 1708 - 1708. Food
Lord Ethan couldn't do anything in that situation. Noah's dark matter made sure that Heaven and Earth never restored the connection with his centers of power. The expert couldn't summon his energy to break free from the dark world, so he continued to burn.
'His cultivation level is decreasing,' Noah noted in his mind while inspecting his prisoner.
Night wasn't severing Lord Ethan's connection with Heaven and Earth, but the ambition continued to taint his existence. Noah stole pieces of his law every time the expert died, and his cultivation level inevitably fell during the process.
Noah benefitted a lot from that procedure. Solid stage experts contained a lot of energy, but they were hard to find and kill. Instead, his tactic allowed him to reuse the same cultivator over and over again, providing him with a nigh-endless source of power.
'I can deal with the insane requirements of my body like this,' Noah happily confirmed in his mind while turning toward the battlefield.
Lord Ethan continued to burn, but Noah didn't need to check the process. His dark world could take care of that on its own, so he focused on other important matters.
The black hole drove most of the absorbed energy toward his centers of power. The last use of his potential had forced them to acc.u.mulate a ma.s.sive amount of stress. The fourth center of power had to focus on dispersing the drawbacks before moving to actual empowerments.
The battlefield was still raging, but his allies were benefitting from the dark matter that enveloped the entire area. Noah's technique suppressed his opponents, and his companions ran through the dark matter to help everyone in need.
'This should be enough for now,' Noah thought while sitting cross-legged among the sky.
The scales of the battle quickly tilted in favor of Noah's allies. His side had Robert, the Foolery, and his aura that could render Heaven and Earth's laws useless. The enemy army did their best, but the many advantages of their opponents eventually overwhelmed them.
Noah kept track of Lord Ethan's cultivation level. His power continued to fall, and it soon reached the liquid stage. Still, Noah didn't stop the relentless burning and absorbed as much energy as possible.
Lord Ethan eventually reached the gaseous stage, but his existence began to shatter at that point. Heaven and Earth seemed unable to restore it to a stable state, and light stopped falling on him whenever the black membrane opened.
'Is this his limit?' Noah wondered when Lord Ethan burnt for the last time.
The black membrane dispersed, and Heaven and Earth remained silent. Noah had killed Lord Ethan without requiring Night's help. The mutations generated by his existence had brought the expert's law to its limits.
Noah quickly calculated in his mind the amount of energy absorbed during the process. Heaven and Earth had provided him with enough power to rebuild four to five solid stage cultivators. The result of his new approach was terrific, and his flesh cheered whenever the black hole released part of the purified power.
'Heaven and Earth are paying the interests for their annoying punishments,' Noah laughed in his mind. 'I like it!'
His attention moved on the battlefield again. Robert had joined King Elbas and Wilfred in their fight against another solid stage cultivator, and their teamwork had eventually forced their opponent to die.
"I'll take it from here," Noah announced before covering the expert's corpse with his dark matter and replicating the previous process.
Robert, King Elbas, and Wilfred limited themselves to nod before dispersing through the battlefield. They still had many experts to defeat, and time wasn't on their side.
Noah happily confirmed that Heaven and Earth didn't learn anything from Lord Ethan's death. They tried to rebuild the expert in Noah's grasp whenever he lifted the black membrane. He had basically gained four solid stage cultivators worth of energy in a single move again.
'This is way too easy,' Noah laughed in his mind, but a quick inspection of his body soon suppressed his ecstatic mood.
Cultivators provided more energy than magical beasts, but they were still unable to satisfy Noah's requirements. His body was a bottomless pit that radiated hunger whenever the black hole stopped filling it with power.
'How much do you even need now?' Noah sighed. 'Don't tell me that I have to start hunting rank 9 existences once I reach the upper tier.'
Thinking about the requirements of his body put Noah in a foul mood, but he decided to suppress those feelings for the time being. He always managed to find a solution to those issues, and worrying about them now would only endanger his mission.
The expert in Noah's grasp burnt until her cultivation level fell into the gaseous stage. Heaven and Earth didn't react to her existence anymore at that point, so he could disperse the dark matter and focus on the fourth solid stage expert.
The Foolery, Divine Demon, and Robert had ended up killing the last solid stage cultivator multiple times by then. The expert's power had also started to fall due to the many deaths.
Noah managed to seize the expert's corpse when he reached the bottom of the solid stage. His friends looked at him in surprise when they saw Noah stealing their prey, but his roars soon forced them to focus on other battles.
The enemy army crumbled when it lost its leaders. The weaker cultivators tried their best, but they couldn't do anything against Noah's force. Some of them even gave up and asked for mercy.
Noah didn't show any mercy. Some of them were cultivators from the other side of the Immortal Lands, but he didn't care. They had their chance to fight Heaven and Earth, but they refused to believe in him.
It didn't take much for the entire enemy army to fall. Noah repeated the burning process with liquid stage cultivators a few times, but he didn't let his hunger delay the victory. He only had the time to kill a few experts before losing other possible targets.
"Let's move," Noah roared, and his army followed him.
The group resumed their journey back to the dimensional tunnel. The army's mood had significantly improved after the overwhelming victory, but Noah couldn't feel happy yet.
The s.h.i.+ning battlefield didn't react to their departure, but Noah knew that they had yet to face the real threat. Heaven and Earth were waiting for them in the dimensional tunnel, and he could only hope that their power could handle those rulers.
The journey back toward the dimensional tunnel ended up being surprisingly smooth. The army didn't meet any additional threat, and even the faint pressure released by the s.h.i.+ning battlefield vanished at some point.
The s.h.i.+ning crack in the terrain unfolded in Noah's vision, and his army quickly gathered around its edges. His eyes rose to meet King Elbas' glance, and the expert nodded to confirm his determination.
"This is where the real challenge begins," Noah roared, and even the cultivators understood his words. "Heaven and Earth are waiting for us down there. We will have to face the very power that rules this world. I hope you aren't scared."
Some experts couldn't hold back their laughs when they understood how little Noah cared about life and death. The cultivation journey was about expressing an existence, and Noah would be happy as long as he managed to remain true to himself.
The sole fact that his behavior had attracted Heaven and Earth's existence made the whole matter hilarious. Noah was nothing more than a rank 8 hybrid, but the entire world had to create a scheme to put him in a dangerous situation.
Some of his companions shared his view, and they didn't hesitate to jump with him inside the blinding crack. The rest of the army soon followed, and the dark environment of the dimensional tunnel quickly unfolded in their vision.