Chapter 1036: 1036. Lead

'June,' Noah thought when he saw the island filled with magical beasts' corpses. Even among those bodies, his nose smelled her peculiar scent, confirming that she had been behind that slaughter.

There were many dead creatures at the peak of the fifth rank on the ground and countless more in the lower ranks. Noah felt surprised to learn that June could unleash such power. After all, she technically was a liquid stage expert.

Cultivators on that level could deal with stronger magical beasts quickly, but there were hundreds of corpses on the ground. Even with her higher energy, June must have gone all out to defeat that army.

Noah could immediately understand that she was up to something reckless. He wouldn't mind it in normal times, but her actions appeared desperate. It was as if her life depended on them.

The dark star on his chest began to spin faster as soon as he had that impression. His consciousness expanded, and his thoughts became instincts that he could understand without turning them into words.

His mind processed traces and clues at an unbelievable speed. It skimmed through any input found by his body and consciousness with the only purpose of understanding where June had gone.

Noah felt as if he had activated the Divine Deduction technique, with the only difference that his body had started that process independently. It had reacted to Noah's intentions and had empowered the features that made his innate awareness.

It took him less than a minute to find the trail of smell that carried June's distinct scent and discover that it led to the sea. To his surprise, Noah didn't feel any anger when the Heaven's Spark's odor reached his nostril.

'Am I even a hybrid anymore?' Noah couldn't help but think as he led the way for the Demons. The three of them dived into the sea and waited for Noah to find more traces.

There were other magical beasts' corpses in the sea. Their maimed bodies floated in those murky waters, leaving a trail of death that the trio hoped led to Noah's lover.

The pack was far greater than the reports said, or it had been at least. June had killed hundreds of creatures in the fourth and fifth rank, without leaving even one specimen alive.

Noah and the Demons didn't even know if the rest of the pack existed. The only certain news concerned the existence of three leaders in the sixth rank that didn't reappear since they vanished in the sea.

'Is she going after them?' Noah wondered, but he couldn't believe that June had become so reckless. If she did, it was because her situation was utterly hopeless, and she was looking for a miracle.

That realization made him even more focused on finding her, which pushed his dark star to spin even faster. His senses reached a level of sharpness that made him see June's traces on the laws around him.

Noah felt surprised by the abilities of his body. He believed that part of his astonishment came from his first real appreciation of the sixth rank, but something told him that he had become even more unique.

His new heart made him a peculiar being, but that wasn't his most fantastic feature. He felt as if his body was actively pushing him to become stronger without requiring any fuel.

That went far beyond the inherent advantage of the magical beasts. Those creatures had an easy path, but Noah's body explored that field further. Its constant purification was a sort of preparation for Noah's ascension!

The trio continued to follow June's traces until they sensed a wave of energy coming from the seabed.

Noah didn't even warn the Demons at that point. He directly shot toward the depths of the sea, creating a series of shockwaves that spread on the seabed and gave birth to an earthquake.

Even the simple act of sprinting made nature in awe of his strength. He had become a natural calamity that had to hold back to live among cultivators now.

That event forced the Demons to activate defensive spells, which deflected the might of the shockwave. Meanwhile, Noah reached the bottom of the sea in an instant only to find a cloud of black sparks moving forward.

Noah was about to dive toward it when his instincts warned him of the presence of multiple life forms at some distance from him.

His innate awareness gave him a complete view of the lair. He saw an even more numerous gathering of magical beasts, and he sensed the three powerful leaders resting right at their center.

'Hydras,' Noah thought when he saw those creatures. The leaders of the pack were three Seven-headed Hydras in the lower tier of the sixth rank!

Noah's thoughts processed all the pieces of information concerning that species as he resumed his descent toward the crackling cloud.

Hydras were peculiar. Their potential depended on the number of heads, which meant that those leaders could reach the seventh rank at best. Also, they shared many traits with dragon-like and snakes-like species, being right under them when it came to their bodies' strength.

They had different innate abilities too, one for each head, which made them quite troublesome to face. Yet, Heaven and Earth's fairness made them quite dumb, forcing them to remain isolated on the dark corners of the sea's depths.

Hydras were extinct in the other world, but no one missed them since they brought more troubles than value. The only issue was that they had become hybrids in those Mortal Lands, solving their only natural weakness.

Noah felt even more convinced that someone was behind their transformation. Those creatures would have never come near the coastlines, and it wasn't in their genes to form such diversified packs. He had even started to believe that someone had instructed them to act in that way.

Of course, that was purely hypothetical. Many experts capable of brainwash rank 6 hybrids, even if they had newborns' minds and were stupid by nature.

He would understand if one of the powerhouses had gone through the dimensional portal in those years, but the records said otherwise.

Noah dived through the array of dark sparks, destroying them with his bare body, and landing right behind the figure that had appeared walking inside the cloud.

June stopped when she sensed that familiar aura. Part of her felt warm thinking that she couldn't hide anything from her lover, but the rest of her didn't like that he had arrived right before her final act.

"You shouldn't be here," June spoke, and her works became sharp sparks that exploded in the water around her, echoing her voice.

Noah could sense from her tone how unwell she felt, but he didn't understand how her Perfect Circuit worked even when he analyzed it with his new mind.

He noticed June's cultivation level. She radiated the power of an expert that had almost reached the peak of the fifth rank, even if her centers of power only reflected her status as a liquid stage cultivator.