Chapter 643 643. Darkness
Noah decided to follow Flying Demon when he understood how weakened he was.
He didn't have the confidence in beating him with his power, but he still had items that could protect him and Chasing Demon's talisman.
Flying Demon couldn't kill him in one attack even if he wanted to, his body alone would be enough to prevent that outcome.
The duo flew toward the other castle where the same event from before happened.
The large rocks that made the surface of that structure began to float and opened a passage to the insides of that inscribed habitation.
Flying Demon directly flew through that passage, but Noah inspected that area for a bit before deciding to follow him inside.
A large hall illuminated by the soft light radiated by a few candles could be seen on the other side of the opening, and a few inscriptions covered the floor of that area.
Noah couldn't sense any threat coming from those inscriptions since they were mostly meant to protect something placed at the center of the hall.
His instincts didn't sense any threat, so he decided to follow the elder seated on the wooden throne.
The hall didn't have anything peculiar except for a large bed placed in its center and surrounded by defensive inscriptions.
A woman was sleeping on the bed, and Noah was surprised to realize that she was another rank 5 cultivator.
"I must warn you."
Flying Demon stopped his tracks and began to speak when Noah laid his eyes on the woman.
"Try anything funny, and I will use all my remaining power to destroy every trace of your existence."
Killing intent accompanied Flying Demon's words, and Noah felt the fear that it generated inside him.
Noah could sense that the ruined elder still had enough power to launch one last full-powered attack and that he was more than willing to use it to protect the sleeping woman.
"Is she Dreaming Demon?"
Noah asked without showing any reaction to that loud threat.
"Yes, and she is the only reason why our sects have survived during the exile."
Flying Demon answered before continuing to float toward the bed.
The defensive inscriptions around Dreaming Demon stopped shining when he flew over them, and Noah understood that the elder was opening a path for him.
Noah silently followed him at that point, and Dreaming Demon's features became more evident when he reached a spot right above her.
She was a beautiful middle-aged woman with extraordinarily long and straight black hair.
A pure skin, her small nose, and a pair of slim eyebrows gave her face a harmonious appearance, but it was evident that her sleep wasn't natural.
She would breathe only every few minutes, and a minimal amount of "Breath" and mental energy dispersed in the air every time that happened.
'She is constantly weakening in this state. I'm surprised that she is still in the fifth rank.'
Noah thought when he analyzed her cultivation level.
Dreaming Demon seemed a bit stronger than Elder Julia even after who knows how many years in that state.
"How?"
Noah asked that simple question, but Flying Demon understood that he wanted a complete explanation of the situation.
"Our sects have been chased out of the Papral nation during Ravaging Demon's betrayal, but I guess you are already aware of that."
Noah didn't answer and let Flying Demon explain.
After all, he was already a rank 5 cultivator during the exile, his story would be far more detailed compared to the other sources that Noah had questioned.
"Master and Divine Elder Tabitha left their inheritances in the Mortal Lands when they ascended. Master was a demon to his very core, and he wanted the cultivators of demon sects to find and prove themselves worthy of his heritage. Yet, the orthodox sects' focus is on their organizations as a whole rather than on the personal power of their members."
Noah agreed with those words.
Orthodox organizations generally had weaker human assets due to the kind of nurturing that they provided to their members.
However, they made up for that weakness with the higher number of cultivators under their domain.
Also, that nurturing didn't prevent the appearance of exceptional individuals.
Orthodox organizations could give birth to powerful heroic assets since cultivators could obtain a strong individuality even in a peaceful environment, it was simply rarer.
"The Ravaging demon sect secretly joined the Council and obtained part of Divine Elder Tabitha's inheritance in exchange for information about the demon sects and their leaders. Ravaging Demon reached the fifth rank in that period, and the Council prepared specific countermeasures for each of us. Our defeat was unavoidable."
Noah didn't show any reaction, but he could somewhat understand Ravaging Demon.
He had found an opportunity to reach the fifth rank and sacrificed all his allies to claim it.
That act required a lot of determination and planning, especially with the threat of a divine being in the Immortal Lands.
The truth was that Noah had already considered exploiting the weakened state of those two rank 5 elders to obtain their dantians, but the task didn't seem feasible.
Also, a large part of him thought that it wasn't worth it.
Adding two rank 5 elders to the ranks of the Hive would directly improve his situation, and he didn't necessarily need those nourishments.
Noah didn't believe that to be the best approach, even if those two dantians were to push his body in the middle tier.
After all, he could obtain the same results while hunting magical beasts, but nothing could compare to increasing the number of rank 5 heroic assets of the Hive.
"Dreaming Demon is a genius and a pioneer in her field. Her techniques allow her to interfere with the Heaven and Earth's will in the world and divine specific aspects or even future events. She managed to divine this separate dimension with her abilities, but the effort has forced her in this state."
Noah couldn't help but think about Ruth when he heard those words.
Yet, he knew that Dreaming Demons' feats were far more amazing since she was forcing Heaven and Earth to reveal something.
"She said that every other path would lead to our destruction, but there was hope for our survival inside this dimension. I still remember her words from a thousand years ago."
A warm smile formed on Flying Demon's skeletal face at that point, and Noah's eyes widened when his words resounded inside the hall.
"I can see the Council crushing us and the Shandal Empire enslaving us at the end of each of those roads. Yet, it seems that even Heaven and Earth can't predict what would happen if we enter the formation. There is only darkness on the other side, and darkness is our only hope."