Chapter 641 641. Castles
Noah felt some pressure being applied to his mental sphere as the formation led him inside the separate dimension.
A long time had passed since a similar pressure was able to affect his mind, but he could easily endure it.
That pressure vanished at some point, and Noah directly cast the Dark cover spell before even opening his eyes.
He was almost sure that the separate dimension wasn't too dangerous for him, but he didn't mind being careful.
A dark layer covered his figure as he flew higher in the sky to take a better look at the environment with his real eyes.
Vast prairies spread for kilometers in all directions, and small hills appeared from time to time on the horizon.
The two red moons stood up in the sky, they seemed about to overlap in a matter of hours.
No star could be seen in the sky, and its dark-blue color radiated a soft light that filled the entirety of the separate dimension with an eerie and obscure feeling.
The "Breath" was as scarce just as Havok had sensed, Noah guessed that cultivators wouldn't be even able to reach the second rank in that environment.
Yet, his dantian wasn't affected by that issue.
Heroic cultivators absorbed the "Breath" inside the matter, the energy that carried a trace of the laws of their element.
They would be able to train their dantians as long as there was matter.
Only his body seemed to complain about that density since it still absorbed the "Breath" in the air.
However, Noah's stash of corpses of rank 4 magical beasts was so large that it would take decades to deplete it.
There wasn't any living being in the area, the only form of life seemed to be the dark-green grass that grew from the terrain.
'Is it even a lifeform?'
Noah questioned himself about the grass as he flew toward the ground.
His doubt turned out to be on point.
The grass turned into "Breath" of various elements when Noah took a handful of it from the ground and squeezed it in his palm.
That was the last confirmation that he needed for what concerned the nature of that environment, he was now entirely sure that he was inside a separate dimension.
That discovery further increased his amazement.
The sky and ground were incredibly lifelike, it was as if someone had directly moved a real environment in that realm.
That method had been used in the Royal Inheritance and was already spectacular in many ways.
Yet, that dimension perfectly recreated a real world without even showing the slight ripple on its fabric.
'Same school as Eccentric Thunder, but far better executed.'
Noah concluded in his mind before returning in the air to analyze his surroundings.
His gaze swept the areas far in the distance and stopped when he saw the shapes of the roofs that he had noticed through Havok's eyes.
He began to fly toward that sign of human life without dispersing his hiding spell.
He wasn't sure that he would find cultivators, and he couldn't be certain that they would be friendly.
So, he kept the Dark cover spell active in case he needed to perform a surprise attack.
Noah flew for an entire day through that motionless scenery.
The wind didn't blow in the separated dimension, and the only event that could make anyone keep track of the time was the movement of the moons.
Noah didn't find problems regarding that feature, his mind couldn't be affected so easily.
Two massive castles appeared in his view at some point.
They were tall buildings that didn't reflect the modern architecture found in the structures of the Utra nation and Coral archipelago, and both of them exuded an ancient aura.
It soon became apparent that those castles belonged to a different era.
Their aura didn't surprise Noah, that feature was in line with the age of the formation after all.
Yet, he couldn't help but stop his advance when he noticed that other small habitations surrounded by large yards covered the prairie around the castles.
The habitations were nothing more than one-story houses, but what surprised Noah was that he could sense traces of life coming from inside them!
Noah wanted to investigate further, but one of the castles suddenly radiated a wave of subtle energy that reached for him.
'Have I been discovered?'
Noah was amazed when he saw those mental waves coming for him, but he quickly flew higher in the air to dodge them.
The mental waves didn't react to his movement, they simply continued to move forward and dispersed in the air at a few hundred meters from his position.
'They don't seem to be controlled by a heroic cultivator. Maybe it's some kind of automatic feature of the castles.'
Noah's interest toward those buildings rose at that point, but the same could be said for his awareness.
There were traces of life and inscribed items in a separate dimension that had remained hidden inside the mystical fog for more than a thousand years.
There couldn't be anything simple behind them.
Noah slowly neared the houses again and used his mental energy to analyze their insides.
Humans slept inside them, and Noah guessed that he had arrived during what they considered night time.
However, he was soon able to notice that something was off.
'There isn't any lifeform around here. How can they even survive?'
The grass was made of "Breath", and those humans were mostly commoners, only a few of them were cultivators in the first rank.
Yet, humans couldn't survive without nourishments even when they reached the heroic ranks, so Noah couldn't understand how could those rank 1 cultivators be alive in such a barren land.
"You out there, stop hiding. I'm too old to play hide and seek."
Those words suddenly resounded from the same castle that had sent the mental waves.
The words weren't spoken by a voice but conveyed through the consciousness of the being inside the structure.
The only existence in the area who had a consciousness strong enough to hear them was Noah, so it was clear that they were directed to him.
'He doesn't know my precise position, but he is aware that someone has entered the range of the castles. He should be in the fifth rank.'
Noah evaluated in his mind.
A male voice carried those mental words, and the cultivator behind them had managed to notice something even when Noah was using the Dark cover spell fueled by the energy inside his Liquid dantian.
The cultivator in the castle could only be an existence in the fifth rank to notice someone hidden behind a spell with the power of a rank 4 cultivator in the solid stage.
"Who are you?"
Noah used his consciousness to ask that question.
His mental waves carried his words as they reached for the castles.
A long moment of silence followed his question, and Noah calmly waited in the air while keeping the energy inside his Liquid dantian ready to fuel the Shadow sprint martial art.
Then, an answer came.
"I am Flying Demon."