Chapter 1267: 1267. Sunk

The air shattered as the quasi-rank 7 Eternal Snake roared. Noah immediately turned back when he heard that, but he couldn't escape the shockwave that the cry generated.

Noah had faced beings capable of wielding divine might in his life. His cultivation level had always been inadequate on those occasions, and the current situation wasn't any different.

The gap between the heroic and divine ranks wasn't something that secret arts or special techniques could cover. Gods lived in a league of their own.

All those powerful beings had managed to elevate their existences past their mortal restraints. They had obtained power that went past what a lower plane could contain.

Noah knew how even a small shard of divine might could unleash a power that no heroic being could face. That level wouldn't be so difficult to reach otherwise.

Yet, he had always felt a rush of ambition whenever he came into contact with one of those existences. Noah couldn't wait to reach that level. His whole life was about getting stronger, and that league was the final stage.

Noah felt exactly like that when the shockwave swept him, but his rush of ambition was far more intense at that time. Every fiber of his existence shook in excitement when he saw that he could withstand that catastrophic event.

'I'm only one step behind you,' Noah thought as he rushed toward the southern coast.

He could feel it in his very core. He didn't have a chance against the leader of the Eternal Snakes, but he was close, closer than he had ever been in his entire life.

The divine ranks were right around the corner. Noah only had to cross the last hurdle and elevate his existence to where it strived to be.

Noah's battle had awakened the quasi-rank 7 Eternal Snake. A creature on that level couldn't fail to sense the commotion happening above the lava lake.

Someone had dared to invade its domain, and that couldn't go unpunished. The quasi-divine creature had to show the world that it was the true king of that landmass.

The shockwave shattered the ground and opened large cracks in many regions. Cliffs appeared everywhere in the new continent, and only the central lands remained unaffected by that pressure.

A thick layer of ice created with the silver liquid of the divine leaders covered the central lands. A quasi-rank 7 creature couldn't destroy it with a simple roar. Matter on that level wouldn't normally be in a lower plane.

The Snake's gaze inspected the lands around it once it finished expressing its anger. It didn't sense any trace of the invader, but it could see the state of the packs that had faced him.

The three packs had suffered a lot during Noah's assault. He had killed one specimen at the peak of the sixth rank, two in the upper tier, and almost twenty among middle and lower tier.

That loss wasn't something that the quasi-rank 7 creature could ignore. Those were powerful underlings that the leader treasured for many reasons, especially its hunger.

Less than seventy rank 6 Snakes remained in the world after Noah's assault. The quasi-rank 7 creature wanted to return to the Immortal Lands one day, but it didn't know if that number was enough to ascend.

Noah was a threat to its ascension. It had to eliminate anyone who put its reserve of food in danger.

The Snake shot toward the southern coast when it made sure that Noah had left the continent. Its sprint through the sky made the whole golden net tremble, and shards of that inscription fell before dispersing in the air.

Its sole movements were enough to damage the formation that Second Prince had created after decades of study. The creature didn't even care that its actions were bringing the world closer to its end.

The quasi-rank 7 creature reached the coast in less than an hour. Its speed went beyond any other existence in the lower plane, and the violence released during its leaps was enough to threaten the very structure of the world.

It was as if the world itself was saying that something on that level couldn't be there. The Snake's power had already surpassed the heroic ranks, so it had to go in a world that could contain it.

Noah had long since left the area by the time the leader arrived. He had sensed its anger, and he didn't hesitate to sprint toward the nearest entrance to the separate dimension while the creature reached the coast.

Yet, he didn't use the teleportation matrix to leave. He held back from activating it because he wanted to see what the quasi-rank 7 Snake would do and learn more about its power.

Quasi-rank 7 beings were slightly different from complete divine existences. They had access to power that went beyond the heroic ranks, but they weren't proper gods.

The Ape God couldn't express divine might too often, and the winged beast was nothing but a fly in Shandal's eyes. The god of the Empire also had its limits. He had a limited amount of divine "Breath".

The quasi-rank 7 Snake was similar to the leader of the winged beasts. Its power wasn't wholly divine, but it didn't have limitations when it came to expressing its might. It was always above the heroic ranks in terms of battle prowess.

The Snakes' leader released another angry roar when it sensed that Noah's tracks led to the sea. He had gone underwater to return to the teleportation matrix, and that had made him hard to track.

The Snake wasn't a marine beast. That environment couldn't affect its battle prowess, but it reduced the range of its awareness. The creature wouldn't be able to sense him even if he was nearby.

Noah kept his mind focused on the creature. His attention was on the final target of his hunt, and he didn't care if his consciousness ended up revealing his position.

He wouldn't let go of that chance. Learning about his prey was a crucial aspect of his hunt, and he had another reason to delay his return in the separate dimension.

His ambition was exploding. Feeling so close to that level of power had put his existence aflame. His dantian began to improve on its own during that process.

His individuality also helped his other centers of power, and his black hole activated on its own to support that process. It had sensed Noah's peculiar mental state, and it didn't hesitate to provide dark matter to quicken that improvement.

The quasi-rank 7 Snake began to slam its tail on the southern coast's lands, avoiding the lava lake in the process. The terrain sunk under those repeated blows, and the sea soon took over the area.

The sea submerged entire regions. The weaker Snakes could only escape during that expression of pure anger, and some of them even suffered injuries in the process.

The quasi-rank 7 Snake stopped attacking the coast only after the sea had invaded most of its lands. Its mouth opened at that point, and a wave of silver liquid fell on the ground as it flew across the areas that it had destroyed.

The sea froze. A thick layer of ice replaced the lost territories and created lands that radiated the leader's aura. It was as if those regions were now an extension of the Snake's senses.

The Snake then raised its head at the sky and spat more of its liquid. A vast cloud soon formed, and silver drops began to fall everywhere on the new continent.

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Author's note: The next chapters will come after I wake up. You know the drill.