Chapter 1755 - 1755. Hidden

Screams tried to resound through the prisons, but Noah's dark world covered the cultivator's cell and contained every sound. Only faint tremors spread through his dark matter, but the bystanders couldn't understand what was happening inside the technique.

It felt hard to change a law that didn't want to transform. Pieces of the man's existence fell apart rather than mutating. The cultivator had a great determination that Noah couldn't shatter through speeches or simple demonstrations of power.

Noah used that chance to learn more about the transformation. He knew how his influence affected the world and magical beasts, but everything was different when it came to actual cultivators, especially Heaven and Earth's followers.

"Stop!" The man shouted while inside the dark world. "The rulers have given me this law. You can't take it away."

"Silencing you would be far easier," Noah sighed, "But what if your voice changes and I don't hear it? See, we both have to do things that we don't like."

"You are a monster!" The man cried while pieces of his body fell apart and transformed due to the mutations radiated by Noah's existence.

"You aren't the first to say that," Noah said in a plain voice while his eyes never left his guinea pig.

'The mutations will eventually affect him,' Noah thought while he made sure that the workshop inside the dark world didn't commit any mistake. 'The only problem is with his mind. I can't lose it.'

Noah didn't care if the cultivator achieved a perfect transformation. Committing mistakes would actually help him more since he had yet to fail in one of those procedures.

Yet, he needed the information in the man's possession. Trying to pierce his mind with his consciousness would only ruin the nature of those memories. The best approach was to turn him into a hybrid that Noah could force to submit. His previous factions wouldn't matter at that point.

Noah had to be careful to preserve the cultivator's mind. His influence didn't attack randomly, but it started from the expert's feet and slowly went up as the body found new stability.

The flesh and various body parts had to crumble before taking a new form. The process was excruciating even for a cultivator who had lived for millennia. No amount of training could make an existence used to that amount of pain.

The transformation didn't only affect the body. Noah's ambition went deeper, right at the core of the expert's law. The cultivator felt pain spreading through his very existence, which made enduring the procedure basically impossible.

Noah had to be patient. He didn't have complete control over the mutations when they clashed with such a strong law, but that wasn't the main issue. His instincts and black hole were already doing their best to take care of the transformation. His problem was the time invested in the procedure.

'No reactions from the outside world,' June's voice reached his mind at some point. 'Are you sure that Heaven and Earth will come?'

'What's sure about Heaven and Earth?' Noah transmitted through his inscribed notebook. 'Just keep an eye out there. They know where we are, but they have no idea about our plans.'

'They don't seem to care,' King Elbas joined that mental conversation. 'We aren't doing much in the end. It's just a single cultivator.'

'A cultivator who can tell us where the Crystal City is isn't a small matter,' Noah explained. 'Those fanatics are the only proper force that still follows Heaven and Earth on this side of the Immortal Lands. They are the ground troops that the rulers can deploy without wasting energy.'

Noah's speech made a lot of sense to those listening to that mental conversation. The consumption of energy had become a popular topic as his group learnt more about Heaven and Earth, so everything that could make them waste more power had turned into a target.

Moreover, Noah had a deep grudge with the Crystal City, so destroying that organization was a must. The only problem was that every other force in the Immortal Lands seemed unaware of its location. Even Steven and his cells didn't know what to think about that.

Still, Noah had the answer right in front of him now. He could give a proper target to his entire organization if the procedure went well, and he wouldn't back down from such an appealing chance.

The cultivator fell apart and reformed. Pieces of his skin would turn into different materials due to the struggles of his law, but Noah eventually overcame all those hindrances and forced the mutated parts to gain a stable form.

The scene was gruesome. The cultivator's foot could randomly transform into a tough mineral. His fingers could become blades even. The interference of his law was only making the procedure more painful, but he eventually exhausted the innate power that Heaven and Earth had put in his body.

Everything went smoothly after that point. The cultivator didn't have any power left in his tissues. He would normally fall apart if he were in the outside world, but Noah's dark matter was keeping him alive.

That near-death state didn't soften the pain caused by the procedure, but the cultivator began to give in after he lost every connection with Heaven and Earth. A complete lack of emotion ended up filling his face as Noah continued infecting him with his influence.

'I'm almost done,' Noah thought without warning his companions. 'I only have to approach his head now.'

Noah still hesitated to move the procedure to that point. Tinges of paranoia built in his mind due to Heaven and Earth's ma.s.sive power.

His friends in the outside world had yet to report that something was off. Heaven and Earth seemed completely oblivious to Noah's progress, and that left him speechless.

Noah mocked Heaven and Earth often, but he still respected them enough to know that they wouldn't commit such evident mistakes. They would never give him the key to find their ground troops.

An azure light suddenly shone from behind Noah's eyes. He cut the cultivator's head with a simple move of his fingers before activating Supreme Thief's technique.

The cultivator seemed to have lost every connection with Heaven and Earth, but Noah didn't trust his senses when his opponents were existences capable of ruling the entire world.

The cultivator didn't react to that sudden change. He was nothing more than a corpse kept alive by Noah's dark world, so he did nothing when his warden placed a hand on his severed head.

A suction force suddenly spread from his hand, and his dark world immediately enhanced it. Noah entered deep into the expert's mind and tried to draw his iconic technique, even if he knew that the man didn't have much left.

However, something reacted to the technique. In theory, Noah shouldn't have found anything to absorb there, but a powerful force firmly opposed his ability.

'I found you,' Noah couldn't help but smile when he sensed the nature of that energy.

His consciousness covered the man's mental sphere and allowed him to obtain a clear view of its insides. A white lump of light floated among that ethereal s.p.a.ce and tried to suppress its glow.

Author's notes: Ehm, I've caught a fever. It took me ages to write almost everything. There will be a slight delay on the last chapter, but nothing more than an hour.