The Chasing demon sect was swept by a huge commotion after that day.

Sarah's team had been killed after they discovered a separate dimension in the depth of the Great whirlpool, rumors filled the sect, they spoke about dragons and the possible rewards behind that trial.

Yet, they didn't act.

No mission concerned that place and the higher-ups of the sect were strangely silent about that matter.

Noah had returned to his cave, no matter how interested he was about the separate dimension, his cultivation level was too low for its exploration.

A whole team of rank 2 cultivators had been killed even though a rank 3 cultivator was with them, Noah simply had no chances of surviving in the pa.s.sage.

However, there was something unrelated to the separate dimension that had interested him.

'Sarah has spoken about a secret art, what is that?'

That detail didn't escape Noah's ears.

'She managed to breach the walls of the separate dimension with her secret art but I've never heard of something like that.'

Noah thought as he sat in his cave.

The academy had given him a top-tier instruction about the cultivation field but its teachings covered the orthodox methods for the most part, the unorthodox and old practices weren't taught to its students.

A notebook appeared in Noah's hand, he sent a message to Roy to question him about that matter.

'Secret arts are special forms that push the centers of power of a cultivator over their limits, they usually cause grave injuries when executed but they are reliable in deadly situations.'

Roy's answer arrived quickly, his always-honest att.i.tude solved Noah's question in a few hours.

'Something to use when everything else fails then, I should learn one of them.'

Noah thought as he reviewed that information.

He had had always liked to increase his battle prowess but the lack of spells for his element was a factor that became more influent as his power grew.

After all, Noah had only three spells that could accompany him through the entirety of his cultivation journey and one of them was a movement-type spell.

Cultivators with a different apt.i.tude had a larger variety of spells at their disposal while Noah only had four of them that were useful at his level.

'Being of the darkness element is a blessing but also a curse, the advantage that my mental sphere gives me will eventually become useless, I need more fighting methods.'

Noah knew that he was extremely strong for his age and level, no rank 2 cultivator could match him.

Yet, those in the heroic ranks had usually lived for a long time, even centuries, their acc.u.mulation was enough to make Noah's advantage pale.

He had relied on the Demonic form spell till that moment after all but he knew that he would eventually face strong foes that had many spells at their disposal.

The rarest the apt.i.tude, the harder it was to create techniques and spells, darkness and light element cultivators could maintain their superiority only if they had enough spells to counter the other elements.

That's why he was so interested in the so-called secret arts, Noah could only benefit from adding another attack to his a.r.s.enal.

'I can't interfere with the separate dimension for now, I'm too weak. Yet, I can't only cultivate for the time being, I need to expand my combat style in order to be ready for any unexpected situation.'

Noah knew that he couldn't help with the matters that concerned the Great whirlpool, being a rank 3 cultivator seemed the minimum requirement to survive there.

Yet, that didn't mean that he was giving up on it.

The exploration of a separate dimension could take decades, Eccentric Thunder's inheritance ground had stayed in its place for hundreds of years after all.

The same went for the Royal Inheritance, Noah didn't know how deep it was but he was sure that the Elbas family would have some trouble reaching its end because of the restrictions applied to it.

'Cultivate, gather information, increase my attack methods, I need to be ready.'

Noah set a plan in his mind, a black saber appeared in his hands, he was going to perform another Dantian's opening.

Meanwhile, at some distance from the Coral archipelago.

A hooded figure hovered in the air, it seemed to walk on the air as it neared the large vortex in the middle of the sea.

The vortex was more than two kilometers large, its suction force was able to attract and bind even beings with a rank 4 body.

The figure looked at the whirlpool for a while before diving right at its center.

The water of the sea seemed to willingly avoid the figure, an invisible membrane made of mental energy created a cover for the cultivator's body.

The hood of the cultivator flapped, the speed at which it was descending was too high, the hood ultimately slid, revealing the face that it was hiding.

The hooded figure exploring the depth of the whirlpool was, in fact, Elder Iris!

The currents of the vortex reached even the depths of the sea, Elder Iris had to immerse herself for many kilometers before escaping them.

She was now in the place where Sarah said to have found the warm current.

Her gaze swept the area, the water seemed to freeze under the pressure of her mental energy.

However, she couldn't find any trace of the current nor of the separate dimension.

She immediately thought that Sarah had lied to her son but she quickly suppressed that suspicion, Sarah had been a captain in the sect for many years, she had no reason to lie.

'It's either an event happening only at a specific time or…'

Elder Iris began to ponder about the situation, she investigated the area with even more attention.

'Or it's something limited to those in the human ranks.'

Those two possibilities lingered in her mind, she didn't know which one was true.

Nevertheless, she had come there as soon as Roy reported Sarah's story, she needed to discover as much information as she could before the separate dimension was found by the other organizations in the archipelago.