Chapter 972: 972. Raid

Noah walked through the tunnels of the separate dimension alone. There was a map provided by the Council in his hands which depicted the territory of the Papral nation in great detail.

The map covered even the area of influence of the nation. It spanned the regions from the end of the mystical fog to the beginning of the sea on the northern coast.

Some regions had a few red dots marked on them, which resulted from the Council's investigation and hypotheses. They indicated the rebellious sects and the important structures conquered during the rebellion.

His target was a new sect that had appeared during the last five hundred years. Its name was True Mountain sect, and it had gained fame quickly among the Council's ranks due to its members' power.

The sect was the result of an internal fight that happened in a major sect. A rank 5 cultivator in the liquid stage named Elder Marco had taken the best disciples from the original organization with him and founded the True Mountain sect.

After Ravaging Demon's appearance, Elder Marco joined the revolt against the Council, revealing that he had managed to reach the solid stage in those years.

It was needless to say that the alliance's higher-ups had expressed their complaints when Noah had chosen to go after such a powerful cultivator alone. However, his status in the political environment and his many achievements forced the Elders to accept his request.

They didn't like that he wanted to go alone either, but Noah had his reasons for that. His battle prowess had increased in those years, and he wanted to test it without foreign eyes on him.

After all, the alliance required for the cultivators of the Hive to accompany those of the Council due to the inscribed helmets forced on them. Noah's companion would have been an Elder of the allied force, and he didn't want to make his strength famous so soon.

The Hive left Thirty-seven the task to perform the calculations required for those precise attacks. The automaton had even linked the map to the separate dimension, so anyone could know which exit to use.

Of course, the Hive had placed incomplete exits beforehand. The cultivators in the separate dimension only needed to pour "Breath" in their lines to make them appear in the outside world.

Noah reached his destination in less than an hour and proceeded to sort the insides of his space-ring. There was no need for hoods or covers in those attacks. The Ravaging Demon sect had to know who was after it.

Coldness started to come out of Noah's eyes as his darkness went on the lines under him. His "Breath" completed the exit, which illuminated the area and engulfed him in its white halo.

When Noah's regained his vision, he was in the middle of a mountain path, with a dozen human cultivators starting at him in confusion.

"Is this the True Mountain sect?" Noah asked, and the pressure radiated by his sea of consciousness forced those cultivators to answer. They limited themselves to nod since the air had become too suffocating for them to speak.

Noah sensed the presence of a few rank 4 cultivators coming in his direction. He wasn't using any concealing technique, so the whole sect became aware of his arrival.

Another powerful aura burst from the peak of the mountain. Noah sensed that it belonged to a solid stage cultivator in the fifth rank and that it was about to converge toward him. However, before it could touch his consciousness, Noah waved his hand, and a series of Instabilities shot in various directions.

A dense black gas surrounded his figure as the Instabilities detonated. They were his improved disposable weapons created with his higher energy. Each of them had power in the upper tier of the fifth rank and had equally strong saber-shaped runes as their spikes.

The amount of destruction that they unleashed was immense. All the buildings on the path fell apart under the might of the explosions. The same road cracked and sank downward, toward the base of the mountain.

The detonation of the instabilities affected even the mountain in its entirety. An earthquake swept the area, and large fissures appeared on its rocky sides, making boulders fall toward the ground.

The sect's defensive measures took care of external threats, but they couldn't handle a sudden attack coming from behind them. Also, Noah's Instabilities were powerful. Any standard protection would have crumbled under their might.

The explosion propelled the saber-shaped runes, which shot forward and created an array of flying blades that filled the entire mountain. The few lucky cultivators that had managed to escape the detonation of the Instabilities had to face the fury of the runes, which ended their lives in a few slashes.

Of course, the few survivors were heroic cultivators. The human experts had died as soon a whiff of the weapons' aura spread in the environment.

Noah remained inside the protection made of dark matter as destruction spread in every corner of the True Mountain sect. The area was bound to have some protected training areas that his Instabilities didn't manage to affect, but he didn't care enough to search for them.

His focus was on the solid stage cultivator, whose aura was still on the mountain peak. It seemed that the expert didn't dare to chase after him while his runes filled the sky.

When the storm of blades ended, Noah came out of the dark matter and rose in the sky.

The result of his destruction appeared in his view while his consciousness remained fixed on the mountain peak. The sect once had hundreds of buildings built inside the mountain's side, but the Instabilities made everything fall apart.

There was only a messy pile of rubble there now, and no one would be able to guess that a powerful sect had once habited in that area.

"To think that you came to me willingly," A deep voice resounded in the area, and a figure flew from the mountain peak to descend toward Noah. "Patriarch's reward will be incredible!"

A middle-aged man with short black hair and a small scar that ran vertically through his mouth appeared in front of Noah. He didn't have any beard, and his description matched the Elder described in the Council's map.

Noah had already deemed words pointless by that time. Black smoke started to come out from his body, and his dark matter began to condense under him. He was going all out. He couldn't underestimate a cultivator in the solid stage even if he had the means to kill him.

Nevertheless, his innate awareness suddenly sensed danger coming at high speed from behind him. Noah's hand shot backward and grabbed the cause of that sensation. It turned out to be a spear made of ice that fell apart once he applied some pressure.

A second powerful presence appeared at that moment and revealed a rank 5 cultivator in the liquid stage.