Chapter 653 653. Palace
The palace was tall and stood right in the middle of the areas that were targeted by the rank 6 Tribulations.
Shining inscriptions covered its surface and gave it a luxurious and grand aura.
Half of the structure was hidden behind a square defensive wall that had statues of mighty magical beasts on the top of its corners.
Noah didn't have time to analyze those beasts since his view turned orange, signaling the beginning of the barrage of lightning.
The trio's focus went on the defensive measures of the elders.
The one hundred layers of ice were pierced in less than ninety seconds, and explosions began to resound above the ethereal sphere.
The lightning bolts released their power in the air above the group, but they kept on reaching closer for them as the effects of Dreaming Demon's method began to fade.
Not even three minutes had passed, but the defenses of the two rank 5 cultivators were already falling apart!
The power of a Tribulation at the peak of the fifth rank was incredible, and the elders alone had little confidence in managing to defend against it with their joint power.
Their defenses were effective, but there was a limit to how many of them they could create before depleting the energy inside their centers of power.
After all, the Tribulation wouldn't stop for even a second during those thirty minutes while cultivators needed at least a few instants to cast a spell.
Those instants would be fatal in that situation.
Yet, Noah's inscribed items would show their usefulness at that point.
Noah waited until the explosions of the lightning bolts became too close to them before activating one of his talismans.
The talisman created a giant gray vortex above the trio as soon as Noah shattered it.
The talismans that Elder Julia had provided him could defend against attacks in the fifth rank and didn't need "Breath" to be activated.
They were some sort of vessels that contained a specific spell that would be released once the items were broken, which made them quite handy to protect weaker cultivators.
They were mostly given to promising cultivators in the human ranks or heirs of some powerful family, but there were a few exceptions in the heroic ranks.
Noah had stored them since the exchange meeting with the envoys of the four nations and could finally put them to use to counter the great Tribulation.
The vortex rotated as it destroyed every lightning bolt that fell on its surface, and that tried to reach for the heroic cultivators under it.
The elders immediately prepared their defensive methods again and waited for the vortex to fall apart to deploy them.
Noah's stash of talismans wasn't limitless, and the group had to face another Tribulation at the peak of the fifth rank after that.
Conserving as many defensive items as possible was mandatory, Noah only had five of them after all.
The vortex lasted for almost three minutes before being pierced by the relentless rain of lightning bolts.
Still, three hundred layers of ice suddenly appeared in its position and continued to defend the group.
The power of a talisman would depend on the might of the cultivator that cast the spell.
Of course, cultivators would store their most potent spells inside it since they weren't in a battle.
On the contrary, the two Demons had to preserve their energies to last for the entirety of the Tribulation and sprint when it was over.
They couldn't deploy defenses that would leave them drained once created.
Doing that would only force them to stop their advance.
That was why the vortex lasted more than their spells.
Yet, their approach changed after the first talisman was used.
Flying Demon used more "Breath" and mental energy to fuel his spell and increased the number of layers.
He knew that Dreaming Demon would take over once his defenses were broken and that Noah would use another talisman after her.
That gave him the confidence in being able to recover in time to cast other spells without exhausting himself too much.
The three heroic cultivators were taking turns to take care of the barrage of lightning.
The approach that they had planned before starting their journey worked since Noah only had to use three talismans to reach the last stages of the Tribulation.
The black clouds would disperse after Flying Demon took care of what was left of their power.
The fact that Noah only had two talismans left wasn't a miscalculation.
Their strategy saw them flying through the next rank 5 Tribulation, meaning that its power would keep on diminishing as they advanced.
After all, they would have crossed the center of the dimension at that point.
However, the appearance of the palace occupied part of their minds as they defended.
Noah and the elders took glances at that structure whenever they had a few instants to spare.
They simply couldn't help themselves.
The palace in the distance stood its ground against the rank 6 Tribulation.
The fake terrain around it shattered before those mighty lightning bolts managed to land on it, but not even a crack appeared on the surface of that building.
There was some sort of shields around the palace that managed to block the lightning storm completely!
It was clear that the building hid something with the power of the sixth rank.
The Tribulation ended, and the black clouds began to disperse.
Noah and the elders would have to sprint in a straight line toward the southern side of the dimension according to their plan.
Yet, all three of them began to fly toward the disappearing palace.
There were no words, no mental messages, no decisions, they simply flew toward the palace as soon as the lightning storm ended.
Their strategy saw them using their full speed to cross the area where the Tribulation reached the sixth rank of power, but there was something even more potent than that at the center of the dimension!
How could Noah and two Demons give up on the chance to explore it?
Also, their calculations told them that they could still reach the territories with the rank 5 Tribulations even if they took that slight detour.
After all, they had chosen to endure peak rank 5 lightning bolts to be sure that they would have enough time, nothing about their strategy was random.
Noah fueled the Shadow sprint martial art with his Liquid dantian, and the elders increased their flying speed through their methods.
The palace disappeared in a few minutes, but the trio didn't slow down its advance at that sight.
They were set on uncovering the secrets of that mysterious place.