Chapter 2062 - 2062. Alone
The dullness of the environment gave Noah a lot of time to think about his current state and the heights that he could still achieve. His initial ideas about potential techniques evolved, shattered, improved, separated, and took directions he didn't initially predict.
Noah didn't need to create final techniques, not yet, at least. His focus went on his general battle style and the power it could express if he deployed his aspects correctly, especially when it came to time and space.
Then, Noah had to mix them with his companions. The times when he had to fear for their well-being were over. Night and the others could stand proudly at his side and help in most battles, depending on the situation.
Noah partially gained insights into Heaven and Earth's initial mindset after analyzing his power so thoroughly. It was hard to think of ways to deploy the entirety of his arsenal in each battle, and his world was tiny compared to the number of laws that the rulers had accumulated throughout the eras. He felt almost able to understand why they had decided to deploy similar punishments most of the time instead of going directly for the perfect counters.
Having too much could often lead to being unable to show its true power. The issue was fine when it came to actual worlds since they had to manage various environments and living beings. Their job would be over after creating all the systems they needed. Yet, existences didn't have it so easy since they needed to deploy their aspects in battles that were never identical to the others.
Heaven and Earth had it even harder since they had to deal with the negative aspects of both paths. They had to manage the world while also striving toward the tenth rank with an immense number of laws. Noah had to admit that his respect for those beings had only increased after his understanding deepened.
The deeper understanding also allowed Noah to see how to exploit eventual flaws. He felt almost certain that his feats had helped Heaven and Earth develop a better path now, but that evolution felt inevitable when he thought about it. The world would have only continued to create suitable enemies even if he didn't transmigrate there.
Still, that didn't mean that his previous approach remained the best approach. Noah was too extreme. He was one of the few existences that the world would have tried to suppress even without Heaven and Earth, so his feats helped the rulers too quickly.
Instead, delegating part of his plans to weaker beings would continue to hinder Heaven and Earth without giving them much room for growth. Empowering the magical beasts could help delay the final battle and give him the time to seize the power he needed to defeat the rulers.
Of course, Noah didn't delude himself. He knew his character, and his arrival in the ninth rank only enhanced his features. He knew that he would create a mess if the situation benefited him, so his efforts went on avoiding troubles and focusing on his power.
Noah hovered with his legs crossed and his destructive aura all around him. The weak sky couldn't oppose him, and energy never stopped flowing inside his figure, but he barely paid attention to his surroundings. He spent most of his time inside his mind, busy developing techniques or pondering about the current state of the world.
His ethereal blackness slowly expanded as he continued to apply his influence to his surroundings. Still, the growth was barely noticeable. Noah felt that affecting the weak sky couldn't grant him much power since he was stronger than that material.
For once, Noah didn't mind that slow growth, not too much at least. He was too immersed in that new environment to come up with plans that could quicken his improvements. He lacked the knowledge necessary to develop proper strategies.
Keeping track of the passage of time was obviously close to impossible. Sometimes, Noah closed his eyes only to discover that he didn't recognize anything in his immediate surroundings. He didn't even notice when he had deployed the destruction that had opened his current path through the weak sky.
Noah had never cared about the passage of time, and that environment only made him forget that a similar issue even existed. His understanding of that field even involved deeper topics that made centuries and millennia irrelevant. He only needed to desire it to see the space-time array and play around with it, so he couldn't even take the problem seriously.
That long travel felt like the seclusion meant to stabilize his breakthrough. Nothing disturbed him, and he could even decide to study the environment whenever he wanted to find new ideas. Testing attacks wasn't an issue since Heaven and Earth didn't seem to care about his random destructive acts. Noah was using the higher plane as his personal training area, and he found the experience quite intriguing, especially when he recalled where his journey had begun.
Noah had decided to avoid troubles for a while, but he was a magnet for those situations, and someone eventually appeared to remind him that the world didn't belong to him.
"Is the ninth rank fun?" A familiar youthful voice suddenly resounded from behind Noah, but the event didn't take him by surprise.
Noah turned to gaze at the privileged cultivator that had come out of the sky behind him. He had sensed Caesar's arrival even before he teleported completely into the area. His cold reptilian eyes inspected the smiling young-looking expert for a few seconds before voicing words through an annoyed tone. "What do you want?"
"I thought that you might have felt alone after waking up in this type of world," Caesar joked.
"Don't tell me," Noah teased. "Did you take so long to find me?"
Caesar felt slightly taken aback by that question. He couldn't believe that Noah had understood the nature of the situation so deeply a few seconds after that encounter.
"You are right," Caesar admitted. "You can see this part of the sky as a massive Tribulation that Heaven and Earth don't want to affect out of fear of ruining its purpose. Your world didn't help either. I couldn't pinpoint your exact location, and even the destruction that you left behind felt hard to investigate."
"How did you find me then?" Noah asked.
"It was fate," Caesar chuckled. "We had to meet before you went back to your usual chaos."
"Fate doesn't exist," Noah announced.
"It does in my world," Caesar revealed as a meaningful smirk appeared on his face.
"Why are you disclosing the nature of your world?" Noah questioned. "This shouldn't help Heaven and Earth."
"But it helps you," Caesar exclaimed while spreading his arms. "Look around you. Heaven and Earth have almost complete control of the world, and you have played a big part in this success. I'll give you the advantages that you need as long as you keep putting the rulers in tough spots."
"I wonder," Noah sighed. "What if I were to were to defeat Heaven and Earth? What would become of your plan at that point?"
"Death is an inevitable event on many paths," Caesar declared. "I might even say that death is necessary for the paths to exist at all. Yet, we strive to avoid it, even if fate doesn't like that."
"This is useless," Noah whispered in front of the vague answer. The unstable substance started to flow inside his body, and two swords appeared in his hands as he broke his cross-legged stance to walk toward the cultivator.
"What would this be?" Caesar asked in an amused tone.
"It was about time I found a decent opponent," Noah explained. "I have a few things to try. Make sure to defend so I can understand where I stand."
"You are strong," Caesar stated, "But not strong enough. Our battle won't happen today."
Noah revealed a cold smirk before activating his ambition. His companions even came out of his figure and echoed his power.. None of them would remain behind in front of an expert that represented the very peak under Heaven and Earth.