The sudden change in the environment slightly startled the experts. The white scenery had featured a massive brown planet, but empty space that the light didn't hesitate to fill now unfolded in their eyes after Noah touched the ground.
Shafu had taken the broken planet in its insides, but it didn't touch the boulders that were already flying toward the white layer. Noah had chosen that approach on purpose to delay Heaven and Earth's reaction, and his figure quickly shot toward the opening after he completed the theft.
Divine Demon, Alexander, and Sword Saint imitated him and crossed the opening in an instant. Robert and the other experts let go of the hole's edges at that point, and the white layer quickly expanded to fix the gap.
Tense seconds followed that event. The experts stared at the large separate dimension and waited for Heaven and Earth's outbreak, but nothing arrived. The structure continued to pull the boulders and debris toward the membrane as if the planet was still there.
"What did you find?" Noah asked while turning toward King Elbas after a few seconds had passed.
"Heaven and Earth's will is faint here," King Elbas revealed as some of his items flashed. "I don't think they have much control over this area."
"Maybe they are waiting for the losses to reach a critical point," Robert suggested. "They might have a greater punishment ready for us to cross the line."
"I don't know how much energy they can spend," King Elbas continued as his eyes moved among his items. "They have absorbed most of the power released by the Immortal Lands and dead existences, but they must use it to restore the higher plane. We might actually be at the edges of their jurisdiction."
King Elbas' words had a deeper meaning. The whiteness outside the sky clearly was at the edges of Heaven and Earth's system, but he implied something else with his line.
Controlling everything was taxing, and Heaven and Earth could barely accomplish that in the areas under their sky. The lack of immediate reaction made King Elbas feel as if his group was in a lawless zone.
"That doesn't matter for now," Noah announced. "We must find other targets. Heaven and Earth have almost squeezed this world dry. We need more."
"Quick tour around the area?" King Elbas asked.
"As quick as possible," Noah confirmed. "Let's fly across the entire separate space and move on if we don't find anything valuable."
The group didn't talk anymore at that point. The experts shot forward and flew along the edges of the separate dimension. It didn't take them much to find a similar structure, and a broken world similar to the previous unfolded in their vision.
The same membrane with power that approached the ninth rank encircled the second world. The plane had the shape of a triangular landmass that featured a massive mountain, but its fabric appeared quite frail even from outside the white layer.
The group had found an older prey or a world that didn't initially contain much energy. Faint disappointment appeared in their minds at that sight, but they suppressed that feeling and replicated the previous approach.
Noah reached the tall landmass and made Shafu absorb it before shooting out of the separate dimension. He didn't feel any will coming from the group at that time, but the plane still contained energy, so he didn't complain.
"Quick, quick!" Noah reminded his companions before the group shot forward again.
The group eventually found an invisible barrier on their path. King Elbas didn't hesitate to take out his dimensional clawed hand to open a crack and lead the experts back into the void.
The recent exploration had cleared the last doubts concerning the structure of the separate dimensions. Heaven and Earth didn't create a separate space and filled it with different areas. Instead, they build the layer and let their light expand an isolated area inside the void.
Heaven and Earth only created separate dimensions and hid them among the fabric of space. The light released by the membrane did the rest of the work and expanded an area from those spots.
King Elbas quickly tapped on his bracelet after the crack closed and sealed the light in the separate space. The group had reappeared in an unknown part of the void, and the blinding light released from the sky under them covered every trace of holes and similar passages for the insides of the Immortal Lands.
That was the greatest hurdle in the exploration of the worlds outside the sky. The whiteness made it impossible to find the way back to the hole. It even covered other passages that could be in the surrounding areas.
Even the strongest experts would struggle to find their way back on the other side of the sky. King Elbas' items weren't an exception, but he had already tested them and adapted their functions to the strange environment.
The items didn't suffer from Heaven and Earth's influence due to an intelligent function that he had added right after his first exploration of those areas. The heavy light and pressure of the rulers could make most inscribed trackers useless, but King Elbas' creations made use of that power and rendered it harmless during the absorption of energy.
They could work properly even if some fluctuations in their results happened from time to time. King Elbas knew where the group had to go to find their hole, and the experts didn't hesitate to lead his companions.
The group flew across the void for a while until King Elbas descended and made the experts approach the sky. The blinding whiteness filled their vision, but a hole that featured a flag with a horned face eventually appeared in their eyes.
The inscriptions and defenses placed to take care of the many empty beings were still in place, and their efforts had yet to end. Sharp slashes continued to materialize among the void whenever an attack that bent the darkness tried to arrive. Everything was working so perfectly that the forgotten creatures didn't realize that Noah's group had been away for a long time.
"Who's lucky here?" King Elbas asked while landing among his floating inscriptions.
Almost everyone dodged his gaze and remained silent while he waited for an answer. Only the Foolery stepped forward and raised its head to announce its reply.
"Pick a direction then," King Elbas snorted. "Tell me where I have to open another path."
"There!" The Foolery exclaimed while pointing its feet toward an empty spot in the distance.
King Elbas shot forward, and the rest of the group followed closely behind. His dimensional claws appeared in his grasp and cut the void once he reached his destination, and whiteness flowed into the blackness once again.
"Only rank seven membranes here," King Elbas announced wafter he peeked inside the crack. "Nothing worth stealing. Does someone else feel lucky today?"
Multiple experts decided to give their suggestions, and King Elbas didn't disregard any of them. He flew wherever his companions said, but he only found weak layers there.
King Elbas and Sword Saint followed the group from the rear guard. The empty creatures had reappeared after the group left the area protected by the inscriptions, so the two experts had to deal with the morphing void.
Still, those enemies weren't an issue for the two experts. Sword Saint seemed able to handle them on his own, but Noah didn't want to leave him alone in that dangerous environment.
The group eventually found another membrane that featured power near the ninth rank, and all the experts quickly flew inside it. Multiple separate dimensions that featured broken worlds unfolded in their eyes, and Noah didn't hesitate to give the order to start stealing them.