"I'll never betray the Matriarch!"

The woman gritted her teeth and spoke with a firm voice.

Noah sighed and grabbed her hair as he walked back on the battlefield.

The woman screamed and cried but Noah was unmoved, he simply returned at the base of the mountain and left her on the ground.

Then, he went looking for the remains of the other nine cultivators but he wasn't able to find much: he had fought using the partial Demonic form for the whole time, the toxic smoke had devoured most of their bodies.

They had one s.p.a.ce-ring each but they only contained their weapons, there weren't any potions of wealth inside them.

'It seems that they were afraid of being recognized. I understand the absence of Credits but bringing no medications is quite foolish.'

Noah shook his head and gathered the weapons in his s.p.a.ce-rings before destroying those of his enemies and clearing every remaining trace of their battle.

Only he and the surviving woman remained.

"I understand that you don't want to reveal your ident.i.ty but I'm still interested in your techniques. How are you able to perform inscriptions by just moving in that strange way?"

That last spell was able to break Noah's defenses, he had to admit that he was quite surprised by its power.

However, the woman didn't answer and turned her head away from Noah.

"You spoke of a Matriarch, are you referring to Gillian?"

The woman's breathing stopped for a moment before resuming at a normal pace.

"Let's see if I have understood correctly. Gillian asks each man that comes to purchase from her secret market to spend the night with her. Yet, that's just a way to perform an unorthodox technique, I believe that's a cultivation technique of some sort."

The woman's eyes widened but Noah continued with his speech.

"Also, her followers are all women who are able to perform even stranger techniques, I can't help but think that she is in charge of some organization."

Noah had his head raised as he spoke those words, he was trying to link every detail that he remembered.

"Then, she doesn't even allow her followers to bring potions or pills in their missions. For someone that has spent his life hiding, I can recognize those that do the same."

"You have no proofs."

The woman finally spoke.

"Nor do I care. The way I see it, if a man is so weak that can't suppress his arousal, he deserves to die at Gillian's hands. I just want the theory behind your joint attack, I can't neglect the knowledge of the other countries in the cultivation field."

The woman listened to his words and gulped, suppressing the pain coming from her missing limbs.

"The technique originates in the area of influence of the Utra country-"

Noah wielded a saber and severed one of her arms.

"That's a lie and I've never asked for its origins, you just want me to think that you have given up."

The woman cried in pain as another of her limbs was cut away.

She had a rank 4 body, her vitality was extremely high but that wasn't an advantage in that situation.

A high vitality meant that she would be able to resist for a longer time under Noah's torture and he didn't seem to have any restraint in doing it.

"It's a martial art! It is extremely similar to a spell in power since there are more people performing it. That's all I know!"

'So, they just use quant.i.ty to make up for the lack of quality. Martial arts are weaker than spells but, if enough people perform them in harmony, they can match their power. It seems too easy.'

Noah fell deep in thought, his mind tried to remember every detail of that attack.

'Those were clearly inscriptions but their creation was too fast.'

"It's a formation, right? You use your bodies as the cores of the formation and use a martial art to power it, creating a devastating effect."

The woman nodded at his words, she was quite surprised that he could understand so soon how it worked.

"Is there a version that can be performed by a single person?"

"No, they are battle formation especially created for groups of people."

"Oh, right, how could you pinpoint my location?"

"The scent of the Pink Rose of the underground room is all over you, we have a technique that can trace it. It will naturally disappear in a week."

Noah nodded at her and stabbed his saber on her heart.

Black smoke came out of his weapon that quickly devoured every trace of her.

'I guess that the other nations have managed to create formations that can be deployed almost immediately, that increases the power of their weaker cultivators by a large margin.'

Noah checked his condition and decided to resume his march for a few days before finding a place to rest.

'I shouldn't underestimate weaker cultivators from now on, there are simply too many techniques that I'm unaware of. The safest approach would be to increase the level of my centers of power but that would slow my travel by a lot.'

Noah picked the map and unfolded it.

'The countries under the Empire's influence occupy almost half of the continent and I want to reach the opposite border in order to feel completely safe.'

Noah searched on the map for a country that fitted his needs.

He needed to find a place between the Shandal Empire and the Papral nation where he could develop, what he needed was time to raise his strength.

'War zone.'

Noah read those words while he inspected the countries on the opposite border with his mental energy.

'Efrana, war zone. Only place where the defensive formation of the Empire has fallen. Constant battle between the Empire and the Papral nation. Mercenaries set their tribes there to have a better chance of being hired.'

The information on the map ended there but they were enough for Noah.

'It took me four months to arrive here and I have basically never stopped. The distance between this place and the nation of Efrana is even longer and I surely don't want to arrive there tired and exhausted. I've decided, I'll take my time to reach Efrana and then acc.u.mulate wealth as a mercenary, my centers of power should improve quite a bit before I arrive there.'