It had been too much. Since Noah stepped into the heroic ranks, the world's political environment had limited most of his actions.
An organization was stronger than a single cultivator. That was impossible to deny. However, those high enough in the cultivation journey could reach the point where they could ignore any limitation and threaten entire forces with only their power.
Noah wasn't there yet, but the situation in the hidden world was different. The cultivators there were scattered and enslaved, and their leader was nothing more than a bag of bones capable of releasing a powerful aura.
An attack with power in the sixth rank was a threatening ability, capable of reducing into ashes virtually any existence in the lower ranks. Yet, Noah wasn't a simple no one. His hybrid state gave him the best natural defense in the world, and his techniques put him in a realm of his own.
The experts in the fifth rank around him felt the need to help their leader, but Noah's sudden reaction made them take a step back. They couldn't even begin to understand how a liquid stage cultivator could have access to so much power.
The black metal that made the palace bent and screeched as the powerhouse's aura tried to suppress Noah's techniques. Snore's figure became smaller under that pressure, but its body turned into smoke that protected the parts casting the attacks.
Noah felt no pressure at all from inside the Demonic Form and his Blood Companion. His six blades were steadily held above his head, ready to unleash the second form of his martial art.
"You sure are strange!" The female voice resounded again in the hall as the rank 6 aura became more intense. "Rank 5 cultivators must have become so delusional on the surface!"
Noah didn't even mind those words. He had understood long ago that powerhouses didn't care about anyone in the lower ranks unless they needed something.
The skeleton would have already attacked Noah if she didn't need anything from him. However, her aura didn't even take the form of a spell. It was only becoming more intense as if she was trying to scare him into submission.
Noah activated the Divine Deduction technique and observed the flow of the "Breath" in the area. The inscriptions on his mind's walls helped him evaluate the situation more accurately, which led him to a simple conclusion.
"You can't cast many attacks, do you?" Noah asked in a rough voice mixed with growls.
There had to be limitations due to the powerhouse's poor state. Unorthodox techniques usually had harsh repercussions and endangered the overall power of a cultivator when abused.
The skeleton had abused anything that could prolong her life, which probably left her with little more than a trace of her hold aura.
The natives of that world exchanged glances before assembling in a battle formation around Noah. A few more cultivators arrived and joined the technique as soon as they understood the situation.
Noah ended up surrounded by eight rank 5 cultivators of various stages, but his eyes never left the skeleton. He didn't tilt his weapons either. His sole stance was a threat against the seemingly powerless powerhouse in front of him.
"You'll die!" The skeleton said with her usual childish voice.
"Kill me in one blow," Noah replied, "Or his pretense of a revolution of yours will end once for all."
Noah and the skeleton didn't back off and remained in that stalemate as they analyzed each other. Meanwhile, the cultivators surrounding him remained still as they waited for the situation to evolve.
Their unwillingness to attack made Noah crack a smile. Their hesitation was proof that they feared what he could unleash on their leader.
The powerhouse found it hard to believe that her instincts told her to avoid a direct contrast with Noah. She knew that her condition was beyond what the word poor could describe, but she still had access to attacks with power in the sixth rank.
Something on that level should be unreachable for cultivators in the lower ranks. She could understand that existences at the peak of the fifth rank could give her the feeling of having a chance to survive, but that sensation was astonishing when it came from Noah.
"What are you?" The female voice echoed again, but it sounded far more aged at that time. There weren't the childish exclamations anymore, but only a deep and profound tiredness.
Noah didn't answer. There was only one way to give hints about his species in that tense situation, which wasn't through words.
A crack appeared on the fuming helmet as Noah spread his mouth and lifted it to the ceiling. The world lost its light for an instant before revealing a column of ethereal and pale-white flames.
The natives almost broke their battle formation at that sight. They could accept that the giant snake had access to different kinds of attacks, but the ethereal flames came directly from Noah!
They had understood by then that Noah had a darkness aptitude. Yet, those flames made them aware that there was far more about his power that they didn't know. Moreover, there was one existence in the hall who recognized that fire.
"How can you possess the fire of the Light-devouring Dragons?" The skeleton said in her aged voice. "A giant snake as a puppet, darkness with various structures, and flames coming out of your lungs. What are you?"
Her aura slowly dispersed during her words, and her underlings broke the battle formation when they saw that. It was clear that their leader had silently decided to talk with the foreigner.
Noah inspected the experts around him and dispersed the Demonic Form when he sensed no more danger. Snore retracted its attacks too, but it resumed a solid form and coiled itself around Noah in a protective stance.
"Light-devouring Dragons," Noah said as he sat cross-legged on his Blood Companion, "I didn't know the name of their species. Heaven and Earth cursed them so many years ago that there aren't record about their past might anymore."
The skeleton and her underlings remained silent as they watched Snore lifting Noah in the air.
"I fused with one of their kind," Noah revealed to make his figure as an inscription master more appealing to that force. "I'm the first artificial hybrid in the world."
Those Mortal Lands had never been aware of hybrids before King Elbas opened a portal to the other world. It was only normal that the cultivators trapped in those regions would have never thought that something like that was possible.
Yet, someone among them could immediately understand the benefits behind a hybrid body and how it could improve her situation.
"Can you fuse me too?!" The skeleton said a few instants after Noah revealed his hybrid status. "We have plenty of beasts here, and there isn't much left of me to fuse!"
Noah revealed a cold smile when he heard the childish voice resounding again, and he couldn't help but reply in an aloof tone. "I believe you need to offer something first."