Chapter 1491: 1491. Sleep

The foreign energy belonging to Madame Canson had made the Shadow Domain go wild. Noah was inside the layer between the dimensions, but that force had flung him outside the edges of the area created with Miss Void's spell.

Once Noah flew out of the Shadow Domain, the space around him twisted. He began to shift between the void and multiple dimensions that bordered the technique.

He flew for thousands of kilometers in the span of a few seconds. The barriers between the dimensions resembled thin watery layers during the process.

Noah couldn't help but feel a similarity with King Elbas' dimensional tunnel. A slight movement made him cross entire regions, and that process continued until Madame Canson's pushing force ran out.

When the force was about to run out, Noah used his remaining strength to push himself into the most stable dimension, which turned out to be the Immortal Lands. His head slammed on an azure ground, and his consciousness went dark due to his exhaustion.

A chaotic sleep followed those events. Noah's consciousness wanted him awake, but he had accumulated too much stress during the past months. He had gone from an experiment to another without ever taking meaningful breaks.

Now that Noah was outside of the quasi-rank 8 sphere, his centers of power could finally feed on the world's energy again. His black hole handled the distribution of that power, and his condition slowly improved during his sleep.

The stress that afflicted his mind vanished, and the bloodlust that had tainted his mental walls harmonized with his mind, giving it a faint scarlet shade.

His dantian couldn't enlarge on its own, but the black hole made sure that its walls received enough nutrients and that its insides were full of darkness.

Noah's body had suffered countless injuries due to the exposition to the battle among rank 8 existences. Madame Canson's attack had also touched him, and the Demonic Form had only worsened his condition.

Still, Noah had corroded the quasi-rank 8 sphere, and his separate space contained the purple crystal seized by Miss Nine's chest. When his black hole saw that the outside world couldn't provide enough energy for his recovery, it destroyed the item and used its power to nourish his tissues.

Noah's body was already near the peak of the middle tier, but the crystal contained Madame Canson's energy. That wave of power allowed him to meet the requirements for his breakthrough and advance.

The black hole handled everything while Noah slept. It even improved his innate absorption of "Breath" to make sure that the breakthrough went smoothly.

Needless to say, the Demonic Sword, Night, and Snore took care of protecting him. They came out of his body on their own and never stopped patrolling the area.

Years passed. The black hole only accepted perfection, so it slowly reinforced Noah's tissues until they met its requirements. The organ also had to harmonize the various changes that had involved his mindset, so the process took longer than expected.

When Noah opened his eyes, an immense sensation of power filled his mind. The images of the battle in the Crystal City quickly ran through his vision, and his hands instinctively went on his body to check his condition.

Surprise appeared on his expression when Noah noticed that his body had reached the upper tier. The breakthrough had gone smoothly, and his black hole had even stored images of the process to keep him updated.

'That was close,' Noah thought as his expression turned cold. 'Too close.'

Surviving those types of challenges made cultivators improve quickly, but Noah couldn't accept being completely powerless. His friends would be dead if Divine Demon didn't show up. It was clear that his power had yet to reach the point when he could act as he wished in the Immortal Lands.

Noah tried to send a mental message through his inscribed notebook, but no one replied. It seemed that he was too far away from the Legion and his friend to communicate through that item.

'Where am I?' Noah wondered as he straightened his position.

Noah recalled what had happened inside the Shadow Domain. He had managed to remain in the Immortal Lands during the teleportation, but he didn't know how far he had gone.

His notebook was a rank 7 inscribed item in the lower tier. Noah had seized it from Fergie's group, and he had never dared to waste money to buy a better one. Its range wasn't great, but it was still quite large when he considered the width of the Immortal Lands.

'How far did I exactly fly?' Noah wondered as he inspected his surroundings.

His companions were cheering around him, but his eyes focused on the environment. Tall yellow trees filled his vision, and a few mountains stood in the distance. The area appeared empty of magical beasts, but the plants radiated a dangerous aura.

'I must be deep into the magical beasts' domain,' Noah concluded in his mind. 'How long has it been since humans have seen these lands?'

The Immortal Lands never stopped expanding, but the human domain didn't enlarge. Only the magical beasts benefitted from that process, which made their territory basically immense. Noah wouldn't be surprised if even the older organizations ignored how vast it actually was.

Noah had created a deep hole in the ground during his landing. He could vaguely guess where the human domain was, so finding the way back home wasn't an issue.

However, Noah hesitated. If he went back now, he could very well incur in the same unbeatable enemies. The Crystal City, the Sailbrird family, and the secret organization were too powerful for him. Even his recent breakthrough didn't manage to fill the gap that separated him from those forces.

If Noah managed to reach the Outer Lands, he could sneak past the human domain and return to the Legion. Still, that wouldn't change his situation. He would be nothing more than a promising hybrid hiding behind a powerful force.

'June and the others are probably safe,' Noah thought as his lover's face appeared in his vision.

Noah had seen June only for a brief moment, but that had been enough to sweep away the millennia spent in different planes. She was alive and in the Immortal Lands. They would meet again as long as they remained alive.

A warm smile appeared on his face before his cold expression returned. His mind had already decided that he wouldn't try to return to his friends.

Noah had done the same during the invasion of the Eternal Snakes. A possible safe situation was behind him, but he wanted to maximize his growth since his enemies had turned out to be far more fearsome than expected.

Going back would force him to hide in the Outer Lands and use the Legion as a shield. Some experts would be happy to have that backing, but Noah could only see the drawbacks of that situation.

'I can't take the safe path anymore,' Noah thought as he took the bracelets that allowed him to ignore the pressure radiated by the sky.

Noah closed his hand into a fist, and the bracelets broke under his physical might. The white light suddenly became a blinding force that pressed on his mind, but he ignored the pressure before stepping toward the forest.

The sky was a natural training area. It was an annoying constant pressure, but Noah's mind could benefit from it. Even if being without bracelets made his journey harsher, Noah couldn't give up on the possibility of improving faster anymore.

His opponents were rank 8 existences. Noah had to exploit anything he could find to fill the gaps that separated him from those experts.