Chapter 1318: 1318. Dark world

Noah didn't leave the area. He had run away from the corrosive cloud and deployed his dark matter to hide behind the nearest tree. His higher energy took the shape of a fiendish armor while he observed the catastrophe that he had caused.

His instincts screamed in fear when he saw the massive Spider. Every cell in his body stirred him to escape as far as possible, but his eyes seemed glued to that majestic creature.

The Twelve-legged Queen's aura was one with the forest. At first, it would appear that the creature's existence had fused with the environment, but the Divine Deduction technique made Noah understand the truth behind that scene.

The beast's aura didn't copy the environment. The Spider had given the laws that it carried to the forest. That area was part of its being, and the creature could bend the matter around it as much as it wanted.

Noah was speechless. Magical beasts would elevate their existence as they grew through the ranks, but they didn't have individualities. The massive Spider could generate those effects with its sole passive influence.

The forest was the representation of the Twelve-legged Queen's aura. Even the resilient matter of the Immortal Lands couldn't escape from its influence.

Noah didn't doubt his instincts. He knew what had appeared in front of him. The Spider was a proper rank 8 magical beast. It was an existence that had grown past the simple state of a divine being!

'It's a world born from its existence,' Noah thought as countless pieces of information ran in his mind.

The Twelve-legged Queen was a living representation of the path past the seventh rank. It showed him what he had to strive for if he wanted to progress through the cultivation journey.

The effects of its aura were different from his dark world. Noah's technique relied on his higher energy to occupy an existing space and transform it according to his will. However, the beast didn't need any tool to generate superior results.

The alterations caused by the Spider's aura weren't a temporary phenomenon. The matter of the forest would continue to belong to its existence unless a stronger law conquered it.

The changes in the matter showed some flaws in their structure. Its laws still strived to enter Heaven and Earth's system, but Noah linked that to the Twelve-legged Queen's level and species.

Cultivator would generate even stronger effects with their individuality. The same would apply to creatures on a higher level, but even those fainter alterations were enough to give Noah an idea of the path in front of him.

'My existence needs to become a world of its own,' Noah concluded as he deactivated the Divine Deduction technique. 'A single law flying through an array of true meanings is not enough. My individuality must become as powerful as the higher plane.'

That was his path. His law had to reach the point when it could generate an entire world without the help of techniques and tricks. Those effects also had to be permanent. The empowerment that his ambition was currently capable of was still too lacking to compare to that power.

Noah's black hole rotated as fast as it could in that deadly situation. The rank 8 beast's aura tried to suppress him and make him helpless, but his many methods had granted him the ability to move.

The dark matter weakened the natural influence radiated by the Spider, and his black hole managed to salvage his body's freedom. The trio also distracted the Twelve-legged Queen, so most of its aura was converging on them.

Only the leftovers of the Spider's aura reached Noah, but he had to deploy all his methods to fend it off. His body felt sluggish anyway, but he was glad that he could still move.

"Why did you challenge me?" The Twelve-legged Queen said as low screeches accompanied its human words.

Its voice generated shockwaves that seeped through the fiendish armor and made Noah's insides churn. He felt as if hammers were striking his organs and didn't want to stop anytime soon.

Rivers of blood flew out of Noah's mouth as he forced himself to remain silent. The dark matter around him was hiding his presence, but he didn't dare to underestimate the awareness of a magical beast in the eighth rank.

The Twelve-legged Queen was in the lower tier, but that didn't give Noah the chance to take the matter lightly. Instead, he had one more reckless action to perform before he could run away.

Simply gaining an escape route wasn't enough for Noah. Gil would track him as soon as he left, and he couldn't deal with the trio when they worked together. Moreover, his knowledge was still too shallow when it came to the Immortal Lands, but he planned to solve all his problems with his next move.

"We didn't," Zach stammered an answer and closed his eyes as he struggled to finish his line, "Your Majesty."

Even the members of an extremist faction had to show their respect toward such a powerful magical beast. Beliefs didn't matter anymore when their opponent could reduce them into a pulp with the sole intensity of its aura.

"I heard the challenge," The Twelve-legged Queen continued. "Magical beasts don't lie. Are you comparing me to humans?"

Those words seeped deep inside the trio's beliefs, but they could only play along in that situation. It didn't matter that Madame Canson had sealed an agreement with that creature. The Spider could still kill them if they made it angry.

"I wouldn't dare, your Majesty," Zach continued. "There is a fourth-."

Zach didn't manage to complete his line because dark matter engulfed the area and suppressed his words. The sudden appearance of the dark world surprised even the Spider, but the aura innately radiated by its body destroyed the higher energy before it could reach it.

The Twelve-legged Queen didn't feel anything when it saw the dark matter filling the area. It didn't sense any danger coming from that almost liquid substance. Actually, that higher energy carried properties similar to its forest.

Noah had altered the aura of the dark world to make it resemble the forest. His imitation appeared poorly-executed, but it managed to make him gain a few instants.

The Spider understood that something was off when it saw ice spreading on the edges of the dark world. A rocky layer also formed on top of the expanding frost, and the black cloud shrunk to transform into a giant Snake.

Snore engulfed the area with its huge body, but the Spider didn't hesitate to throw one of its legs toward the beast. However, when its limb touched the rocky layer, the Blood Companion's figure opened and dispersed into a storm of dark matter.

The Twelve-legged Queen didn't think that a cultivator was behind that attack. It didn't even recognize the dark world as a technique since Noah had given it Snore's shape.

The Spider believed that a unique magical beast had chosen to attack its lair but had retreated once it sensed the forest leader's power. The Twelve-legged Queen then unfolded its aura to search for the invader, but it focused back on the cultivators after it didn't find anything.

Still, the creature noticed that something had happened during the previous events. The trio was a duo now. Bertha had disappeared.