Chapter 666: 666. Banque

The book was written by a nameless rank 5 cultivator that had witnessed the fall of the Shandal Empire that happened nine thousand years ago.

The god of the Empire had granted a title to that cultivator when it reached the heroic ranks, but the latter forsook its name when it lost faith in the almighty ruler of its nation.

'I've seen the death of countless comrades that had fought with me in the endless wars ordered by our mighty ruler. I've seen an entity with the power to destroy any mortal throne disappearing when his people needed him. Understanding dawned upon me after those sights, but my mind was still too devoted to the Almighty to recognize his flaws.'

Noah read through the contents of the books with intense interest.

The cultivators of the Empire worshipped their god, and the same seemed to have happened in the past described by the nameless author.

Yet, that entity had turned into a heretic when it saw that the god didn't intervene to save its country.

'I've spent years struggling to forget the divine light radiated by my leader, and decades researching the past to appease my doubts. In the end, I found the truth about the Empire and the hobby of its leader.'

Noah could sense the contempt that the author felt toward the god of the Empire through its words.

The nameless cultivator didn't only lose its faith, it even filled that void with hatred.

'Records have been hard to find, but there were always one or two reports hidden in the knowledge of the other two big nations. I suspect that the god left them around to add some variables to his endless game.'

Then, the book revealed the meaning behind its title.

'I've looked for records even twenty thousand years old to discover that multiple Shandal Empires had reached the apex of the Mortal Lands through those years. All of them had thrived under the Almighty's divine light, and all of them had fallen under his indifference.'

Noah had been completely captivated by those lines by then.

The nameless cultivator claimed that the god of the Empire had been in the Mortal Lands for more than thirty thousand years!

Noah couldn't even begin to imagine what it felt to remain stuck at the same level for centuries.

So, he couldn't possibly comprehend the mindset of someone who had been blocked at the first step of the divine ranks for millennia.

The god had been trapped for thousands of years in a world that he can rule easily, without any interest or input.

'The word boredom is too weak to describe his feelings.'

Noah thought before diving again in the contents of the book.

'The Almighty builds an Empire a few millennia after the fall of the previous one and vanishes whenever one of his underlings ascends in the Immortal Lands. I didn't manage to understand why nor what is his purpose. Yet, I'm sure that we are nothing but pawns in his game.'

The book ended with those lines.

Noah had ignored all the details on how the nameless cultivator managed to gather such old information and directly skipped to its final consideration.

It would be up to the Hive to sort through all the knowledge inside his space-ring and summarize it.

After all, most of those data were dated more than ten thousand years, and there would be no available gain in the current era.

'Is the god trying to exploit the ascension of his underlings for personal interests? Still, building nations just to kill time seems a bit of a stretch.'

Noah couldn't believe that such a powerful existence had surrendered himself to his fate.

Cultivators had strong personalities, especially those that had managed to reach the peak of the heroic ranks.

The god of the Empire had to have a plan, something that could only be executed in the long life of a divine entity.

Of course, Noah had also considered the idea that Divine Architect's client was, in fact, the god of the Empire.

There was no one else whose authority and assets were able to affect another divine being.

'Maybe, he is doing all of this to reach the higher plane.'

That seemed the only reasonable explanation to the god's actions.

Noah soon put that matter in the back of his mind to continue his study of the tomes and scrolls related to the Immortal Lands.

The nameless cultivator had explored exciting ideas, but there wasn't much that he could do with that information at the moment.

He couldn't affect matters that concerned peak heroic cultivators and gods.

Yet, he could prepare himself to exploit the situations that they created.

There was bound to be a war once one of the two rank 6 cultivators of the Empire ascended if the nameless cultivator was right.

The Empire would lose the backing of its god and one of its powerhouses, bringing its power directly under the other two big nations.

The Elbas family and the Council would undoubtedly exploit that moment of weakness since they had been suppressed for so many years by the strongest country in the Mortal Land.

However, there was another variable in that era: The Hive.

'I can only make sure that I'm strong enough to join the plundering when those events happen.'

Noah concluded in his mind as new information about the Immortal Lands entered his view.

There wasn't anything sure in any of those tomes and scrolls.

One couldn't obtain a real knowledge of the higher plane by looking at it from the Mortal Lands.

Yet, there were a few details that concerned the other lower words around the higher plane.

First of all, the experts in that field were sure about the presence of magical beasts in all the known worlds.

Every plane inside Heaven and Earth's domain was enveloped in their "Breath", which led to similar life cycles in every environment.

Also, some even stated the presence of cultivators.

'I guess life has evolved in the same way as here. I wonder if this is another hidden rule set by Heaven and Earth.'

Random considerations appeared inside Noah's mind every time he finished reading one book.

He was sweeping through that mountain of scrolls and tomes without taking any rest.

He knew what he needed to do at that point in his cultivation journey, so he wanted to improve his foundation as much as he could before diving into his training.

Then, a mental message reached his inscribed notebook while he was still busy reading.

The message came directly from Elder Julia and stated the beginning of the banquet to welcome the new rank 5 elders.

Noah was almost tempted to finish reading everything before attending, but the last part of Elder Julia's message convinced him to arrive on time.

'The rank 5 elders will discuss their individualities, and the Patriarch will give pointers whenever he sees fit.'