Chapter 1777 - 1777. Bottleneck

The upper tier Eternal Snake didn't know what to say anymore. Noah appeared all-powerful. He had a massive and threatening creature behind him, he had stolen one of the giants, and he had even eaten the thief.

Moreover, he was offering something that everyone in the world needed right now. Noah was willing to give a place to stay to the Eternal Snake, which silently implied the presence of energy in that location.

His offer didn't end there. Noah wanted to fight Heaven and Earth, which were the magical beasts' natural enemies. Even the stubborn Eternal Snakes would consider that chance. The possibility to strike back on the existences that had destroyed the world sounded too good to be true.

"One last thing," The Eternal Snake eventually exclaimed after remaining silent for a while. "I get the chance to eat you after dealing with Heaven and Earth."

"Only the chance?" Noah laughed before pointing at Shafu. "Enter my companion. It has a lair that I'm sure you'll enjoy."

"Our pact said nothing about allowing your pet to eat us!" The snake complained, but Shafu released a threatening growl when it heard the creature comparing it to a pet.

"It's not eating, you stupid beast," Noah shook his head. "Give me one of your underlings. I'll let it tell you how things are on the inside."

The Eternal Snake remained confused, but it still gave voice to a hiss to summon one of its underlings. A creature in the seventh rank awakened and created a path with its ice to slither toward its leader.

Noah withdrew his flame at that point and led the creature toward Shafu. The snake clearly feared the dragon, but it couldn't do much in that situation. It had two threatening existences telling it what to do already.

The dark matter that made Shafo welcomed Noah and the weak snake in its insides. Noah could lead the creature directly into the separate dimension, which adapted to the beast's species and generated ice with the giant's energy.

Noah didn't need to affect the separate dimension in the slightest. Shafu did everything on its own. It inspected the Eternal Snake's features and generated the environment that would make its species thrive.

The snake was ecstatic at the sight of the expanding frozen landmass. It wanted to live there already, but Noah dragged it out of Shafu and threw it back in front of its leader.

The two snakes exchanged a few hisses, and the leader soon showed a surprised expression. The underling had described everything in detail. Shafu was the key to safety.

"I should probably warn you," Noah announced after the leader gave voice to a loud hiss that awakened all the underlings. "Other packs will live inside Shafu once I find them. I don't want to see any battle for the territory. There's enough space for everyone."

"We shall get the largest piece!" The upper tier Eternal Snake announced, and Noah cursed in his mind.

Noah didn't know how to explain that the separate dimension experienced a constant expansion. The snake would probably never believe him, but he couldn't allow fights inside Shafu.

"No," Noah replied as his growls started to generate a chilling aura that expressed his real power. "You go there, take what you need, and behave until I drop you all in my home. I don't want fights, cannibalism, or random acts of destruction. Just roar to the black sky if you want something. I'll hear it."

The upper tier Eternal Snake could only go along with Noah's requests. It had already accepted everything in the end. That small limit on its behavior wasn't a problem when the environment could offer enough energy.

The pack of snakes slowly entered Shafu, and Noah kicked the second giant on the dragon's mouth once that migration was over. He even picked the black region and stored it inside his companion's separate space before resuming the travel.

Shafu kept Noah constantly updated about the Eternal Snakes, and the latter felt glad that the creatures were respecting their side of the deal. The journey across the broken Immortal Lands could continue peacefully, and the group could focus on finding other survivors of the apocalypse.

The group met many giants busy fighting to deplete their energy, and Shafu didn't spare any of them. Small and broken pieces of the lands that Noah had transformed on the other side of the Immortal Lands also appeared from time to time, and the dragon took them too.

Finding survivors turned out to be complicated. The flying magical beasts had no reason to remain among the almost complete nothingness, so they migrated toward the only place that still contained enough energy.

Noah could sense faint traces of the migrations of the various packs toward the stormy regions during the travel. The ground of the giants carried hints of life before and during the apocalypse, so they became his only source of information.

Rare didn't mean impossible. The magical beasts' survival instincts had made most surviving packs migrate, but the same was true for the opposite approach.

Some of the smartest creatures knew that the windy regions were too dangerous for the entities under the ninth rank. The magical beasts had to decide between risking to become food or underlings for stronger existences or try to survive in the almost complete nothingness, and some chose the latter.

The packs that had decided to roam from giant to giant to harness their energy became Noah's targets. His journey followed a precise path that would eventually make him cover the entirety of the area before the stormy regions, so he didn't miss anything.

The group met multiple packs during the mission. Their rarity didn't matter much when the experts were willing to invest years in the exploration and fights inevitably happened from time to time.

Noah rarely felt the need to intervene. He limited himself to expand his pride whenever the battles reached a critical situation, but that seldom happened since his companions managed to seize control often.

The mission asked Noah to submit those creatures, but he also wanted his companions to benefit from the journey. Shafu even took all the giants, so the only available gains consisted of improving the battle experience or special features.

Jordan could work on her pride during her fights. June was a battle maniac that didn't mind testing herself against stronger opponents, even if they were simple magical beasts. Fergie only wanted to gather experience, and Steven desired to take care of everything quickly to continue searching for eventual surviving cells.

The battles against the packs of magical beasts weren't exciting and didn't provide much to the experts' laws, but they could still improve their overall state and mindset. They were survivors fighting against other survivors, and the whole experience eventually led to benefits for their existence.

Leaving the comfort zone was always one of the best approaches to the cultivation journey. Having to deal with magical beasts in that post-apocalyptic world forced the experts to broaden their mindset and consider one of the most important aspects of their laws.

The ninth rank required the ability to generate energy from nothing, and the scarcity of "Breath" in the environment naturally pushed their existences toward that power. It was nothing more than an instinctive reaction of their centers of power. They needed fuel to work, so they had to push their owners toward realms where they could remain unaffected by their surroundings.

Noah also managed to close his distance with the solid stage in that period. His body brimmed with energy, but he would still grow weaker if he didn't absorb anything from the outside world. His ambition forced him to fix that flaw, which only brought Noah closer to the breakthrough.

The same happened to his companions since they benefitted from his ambition. They were evolving toward the right direction thanks to the peculiar features of the world, and Noah could only rejoice at that sight.

However, Daniel struggled to seize real benefits. He appeared stuck, and even Noah's ambition failed to help him crossing his bottleneck.