Chapter 1369: 1369. Underground room

Noah watched as Chief Ash ordered her underlings to retreat. The gaseous stage cultivators didn't hesitate to leave the Rumbling Region, and she followed them after she sent an imprint of her inscribed notebook to him.

They could contact each other now, so they didn't mind that temporary separation. Their deal was already in place. They only had to respect it now.

Noah couldn't leave the Hellish Landscape right away. He wanted to explore that separate dimension and evaluate his condition before throwing himself into a new adventure.

Even if Divine Demon could turn out to be his enemy, Noah wanted to meet him. Still, he had to complete a few preparations against him and Chief Ash's group.

Chief Ash didn't mention Divine Demon's cultivation level, but Noah could guess that he was somewhere around the last stage of the seventh rank. An opponent capable of such might required Noah's full attention, especially since he had to travel with many potential enemies.

Noah flew toward the mountain that released lightning bolts. A cavity appeared in his vision when he reached the peak, and orange flashes shone from time to time from its depths.

He didn't have any information about that inheritance. His map was vague and only mentioned that the lightning bolts would become more frequent inside it. It didn't say anything about eventual trials and rewards.

Noah entered the cavity and walked for a few hours toward its depths. The ground there had a bright red color, and multiple holes filled its surface.

It seemed that someone had dug out pieces of that cave in the past. Noah didn't know if that had been the work of a single cultivator. Still, that scene confirmed the absence of valuable resources in the initial parts of the inheritance.

Noah didn't continue to march deeper inside the cave after that discovery. He sat on the ground and focused his attention on his centers of power.

His ambition had made all his organs improve. His dantian was in the liquid stage, his body had reached the middle tier, and his mental walls had become tougher. It was as if he had gone through multiple breakthroughs at the same time.

That would typically make him ecstatic. Yet, worry filled his mind when he saw how quickly he had advanced. The drawbacks of his ambition would eventually arrive, and their intensity would depend on how much he had improved with his individuality.

The drawbacks after such growth could render him unable to move for entire decades, but there seemed to be something strange about that empowerment. His cultivation level didn't start to decrease even after hours had passed.

'Can I make these breakthroughs permanent?' Noah wondered as he inspected his condition.

His ambition had forced him to reach a level of power that he was ready to wield. His new state only gave him more power and influence over the world, which made him hope to turn that empowerment into a permanent condition.

'I've eaten four dantian already,' Noah thought. 'I shouldn't need energy. What I need is for my black hole to understand that I don't want to let go of my current power.'

Noah turned toward the depths of the cave at that point. Only his black hole had the power to influence the effects of his individuality, so he wanted to improve it before the drawbacks arrived.

The lightning bolts released by the inheritance could make his tissues evolve. In theory, they had the power to improve his black hole even if it was quite protective. It didn't want to use the energy in the sparks as they were. It absorbed them and redirected them in the shape of primary energy.

'I need to make them work together,' Noah concluded as he stood up and walked deeper into the cave.

A lightning bolt eventually ran through the ground, and Noah's hand shot toward it after assessing its power. That massive orange spark couldn't reach the outside world since he seized it when it tried to cross him.

The lightning bolt threatened to shatter after Noah took it from the ground. The violent energy contained in that attack wanted to disperse, so he ate it before it could lose its power.

The meal didn't provide any immediate benefit. That lightning bolt had power in the middle tier. The energy that it contained was lower than what Noah had tasted before.

Still, his black hole reacted to the strange aura radiated by the lightning bolt and stored part of its energy when it purified what it contained. The primary energy that filled his tissues didn't feel different, but it didn't match the amount of power in that attack.

His fourth center of power kept part of that energy to improve, but the process seemed slow. Noah could only think of a method to quicken that empowerment, which involved gathering more lightning bolts.

Noah marched deeper inside the cave and seized every lightning bolt that he found. They didn't seem to surpass the middle tier in power, so the journey toward the first large underground room ended up being uneventful.

When the underground room unfolded in Noah's eyes, he saw that a crackling lake occupied its floor. Countless sparks filled the base of that area, but they didn't hinder his advance since a large tunnel dug right through them and connected the room to the deeper parts of the cave.

'Someone has been here already,' Noah thought as he inspected the sparks.

The lightning bolts that ran through the area above the floor had a different power. Most of them were in the lower tier, but a few thicker ones were in the upper tier.

Noah guessed that he couldn't seize any reward there, but his interest lingered on the lightning bolts. Those attacks carried the expert's peculiar individuality, and no amount of wealth could compare to the chance of improving his power.

'I hope they still send me the information if I end up spending too long on this place,' Noah thought before walking toward the lightning bolts and sitting among their crackling noises.

Lightning bolts landed on Noah's body and tried to fuse with his tissues. Yet, the black hole always stopped their energy from fueling his cells directly. The fourth center of power didn't accept anything that didn't first pass through its dense vortex.

The same strange phenomenon as before continued to happen. The black hole retained part of the absorbed energy to study its properties and improve its state.

Noah didn't sense anything different at the beginning, but the black hole eventually began to spin faster. More energy flowed inside it, and less energy reached the rest of his body. It seemed that the fourth center of power was preparing itself for some mysterious event.

The lake of lightning bolts shrunk as Noah continued to absorb that energy. The sparks in the upper tier even separated themselves to refill the hall with threats on a weaker level, and Noah could only rejoice at that sight.

The hall was a proper stash of that strange energy, and he couldn't wait to absorb all of it. He even felt that his drawbacks were about to arrive, so he didn't dare to waste time.