Chapter 1293: 1293. Interrogation

"I see that you made some changes here," Earth continued to speak, but Noah didn't let its strange voice distract him.

He could sense that Earth was using its influence to take control of his mental energy. Yet, the dark matter blocked every lump of dark-brown water that tried to come in the existence's help.

Noah had complete control of the battlefield. The higher energy appeared able to stop Earth's strategy and kept it confined in its current shape.

"What is this thing?" Earth asked as it inspected its body, but Noah didn't answer.

He could attack right away, but he wanted to see if he could learn something from that mighty existence. Earth represented the peak of the known cultivation journey, and Noah treasured every second spent analyzing it.

His mental walls continued to tremble and release the humming sound. Noah let his mind wander in the aura that the noise carried to take glimpses of the higher realms.

The cultivation journey consisted of constant empowerment of one's existence. Cultivators initially had to amass more energy, but they needed to elevate their individuality once they reached the higher realms.

According to that behavior, Noah could guess that he had to apply the same to his law. He had to bring his individuality to a realm that surpassed those true meanings.

The only issue in that task concerned Noah's knowledge. He didn't know any form of energy that could surpass laws, so he lacked a target to strive for.

He was approaching the divine ranks without having any idea about the nature of his future path. Still, every cultivator who reached the divine realm was in the same situation. Noah wanted to see if he could gain something by studying Earth's aura.

'Complex arrays made of simple meanings,' Noah thought as he let the humming sound fill his mind. 'What were they trying to become?'

Earth noticed something when it saw that Noah wasn't paying attention to the Tribulation. It immediately stopped studying the dark matter and created an ethereal sword that flew toward its opponent.

A series of saber-shaped runes came out of the defensive layers and intercepted Earth's sword. The mental energy that made its structure crumbled and fell toward the higher energy protecting Noah's mental sphere.

The dark matter opened and let that mental energy reunite with the mental sea before isolating the battlefield. Earth's figure became more ethereal after that event, and an unsightly expression appeared on its face. It seemed that Noah's preparations had put it in a tough situation.

"You failed to reach the tenth rank, am I right?" Noah asked after he saw that change in Earth's expression.

The last exchange had confirmed that the Tribulation wouldn't be a problem for him. The dark matter stopped Earth from deploying its annoying abilities and limited that existence to the small amount of mental energy gathered when it formed.

Noah could win in a single exchange, but his reasons went beyond the simple overcoming of the Tribulation. Earth had the answers that he sought, so he wanted to prolong his breakthrough as long as possible.

Earth's expression lost any emotion at his question. It became an aloof face that didn't carry any trace of life, and more swords came out of its hands.

"You were so talkative the other time!" Noah shouted as more sabers came out of the dark matter. "Why don't we have a nice conversation? You can show me images of my ideal life again!"

Earth threw its swords, but the sabers intercepted them and redirected the stolen mental energy toward the mental sea. Noah's copy faded a bit more, but it didn't hesitate to create more weapons.

It seemed that Earth wanted the Tribulation to end quickly, and Noah couldn't do anything to stop that. He couldn't prevent that existence from wasting the stolen mental energy.

'Fine then,' Noah thought as he sent a message to one of the figures hiding inside the dark matter.

"Why did you make the Immortal Land so bright?!" An angry human voice accompanied by roars resounded inside the mental sphere as a huge Pterodactyl came out of the dark matter.

Night pierced Earth's lower body and destroyed it in one assault. Its anger toward that existence was boundless due to what it had gone through in the Immortal Lands. The creature couldn't even bear its sight, but it held back to give Noah a chance to obtain what he wanted.

Noah charged ahead and grabbed his copy's shoulders. His fingers transformed into claws that stabbed Earth's ethereal skin and kept it locked in that position.

"What were you trying to become in the tenth rank?" Noah shouted as he questioned Earth. "What comes after the laws?"

Earth's face remained expressionless during Noah's questioning. It didn't want to reveal anything to that opponent. Leaving him in the dark was the only advantage that it could obtain from that situation.

However, Noah didn't give up so easily. He didn't need words to obtain his answers, not when a superior existence was in his clutches.

Noah opened his mouth and bit at his copy. His mental energy fused with his ethereal figure, and an intense aura swept his mind for an instant before disappearing.

Earth didn't show any reaction, but Noah didn't care. He continued to take bites of his copy and eat the mental energy it contained to experience that intense aura.

The humming sound began to fade as his mental walls started to stabilize. The Tribulation was about to end, but Noah continued to devour Earth's ethereal figure in a desperate attempt to understand the nature of its existence.

The intense aura appeared and vanished as Noah regained control of his mental energy. His mind didn't have the time to study those sensations, but his instincts managed to memorize the feelings that Earth's existence caused inside him.

Earth's figure became nothing more than an expressionless face as Noah continued to devour it. It slowly began to vanish once it lost too much mental energy.

Yet, a theory had formed inside Noah's mind at that point. It was a vague idea that he couldn't translate correctly. Still, he tried to convey it to Earth.

"You were trying to become a world," Noah said as he studied the vanishing expressionless face.

Earth didn't reveal any reaction, but Noah bit on its vanishing figure one last time to experience the changes that his words had caused.

The intense aura was still there, but Noah's instincts sensed something different in it. That feeling wasn't enough to give him any real answer. It only showed that his words had managed to trigger a reaction.

Noah didn't know if that reaction meant that his guess was on point. Still, he now had a hint about the journey in the divine ranks. That was already something. It was more than what other heroic cultivators knew when they approached the divine ranks.

His mental walls stabilized after the head vanished, and a surge of power filled his mind. His mental sea evaporated, and dense dark water replaced his mental energy.

His sea of consciousness had begun to produce mental energy in the seventh rank, and its arrival forced Noah's mental waves to expand. All of a sudden, the entire world appeared in his vision. He could see every corner of the lower plane.