A God!
That simple word caused waves of shock in Noah's mind.
'He must be referring to a cultivator in the divine ranks! Yet, how couldn't the Empire conquer the continent if they have such a strong leader?'
The divine ranks were a world on their own, Noah couldn't even imagine the actual might of someone on that level.
That's why he found suspicious that there were still free countries in the continent, nothing should be able to match a God after all.
'Unless, both the Utra nation and the Papral nation have a similar power.'
Noah knew that the stronger cultivators of each nation would abandon the mortal world and focus exclusively on cultivation.
It couldn't be helped, cultivating required more time as one's level increased, Noah had been in the gaseous stage of the second rank of the dantian for two years and a half by then and he was still in the middle of the human ranks!
'How many monsters are living outside of people's sight? How many Gods there are in this world?'
He didn't notice it but his gaze was being filled by the flames of ambition as he kept thinking of that.
"We are proud of our country and proud of our leader, rebellions are for rats and criminals. Why would someone choose to act like a rat? The Empire is waiting eagerly for another God to be born, it pushes us to our limits and provides resources to anyone willing to work with it, it's a fair request!"
Ross continued to speak but Noah had completely lost interest in their conversation.
"I should probably go, my family is waiting for me."
Noah stood up, placing a new jar on the table.
Ross was confused at first but, seeing that Noah was willing to leave another jar of that wine as a sign of goodwill, he didn't bother asking much.
Noah left the tent in a hurry, he had a strange feeling that was making him uneasy.
'Gods, actual Gods! Cultivation opens the path to godhood!'
He knew that humans could reach incredible levels but that was the first time he heard about someone that powerful.
Gods in his previous world came from religions and cults, he had never believed in any of them.
Yet, here people could watch them and dream of reaching their levels.
Ambition, anxiety, restlessness, those emotions mixed together and led Noah outside of the encampment, back on the large forest on its other side.
He had not lied to Ross, his family was waiting for him, he was sure of that.
However, he knew that he was just an ant compared to Thomas Balvan, he couldn't even defeat William with his current power.
Noah ran in the forest, his feet released shockwaves every time they touched the ground.
Yet, those propulsions didn't make Noah any faster, his body was too strong for such a weak technique to have any effect.
He stopped in the end and found an empty cave where he could resume his cultivation.
'I need to succeed with this martial art.'
He had reached that conclusion along the way, too many things depended on his ability to create techniques.
'The path toward the heroic ranks is blocked, organizations detain cultivation techniques and they give them away in exchange for personal freedom. I can't end up in another system that tries to use me, I want to be independent!'
Even if the Empire's requirements were vaguely loose, Noah still couldn't accept them.
He sat on the ground, his gaze swept his legs as he thought of a way to solve the problem with his martial art.
'Inscription methods are what have allowed cultivators throughout history to create spells and techniques, at least for the majority of them. However, the Elemental forging method doesn't take inspiration from the "Breath" of Heaven and Earth but relies of the will of the cultivator to power up its effects.'
Noah knew that he had to find a way to create his own techniques, he would soon reach the limits of his current ones, his body was already at that point.
'The Body-inscription spell wasn't created with the "attunement" method, I'm sure of that. It uses the power stored in the beasts and the "Breath" of the cultivator to create an animated puppet, the body is just a vessel that powers it.'
He felt that he was about to find the solution that he was waiting for.
'Basically, it takes power from its materials while the cultivator depletes "Breath" and mental energy to control it.'
Noah's eyes were still on his legs.
'My body is a rank 4 material, it has less power than a beast's body but it's still incredibly strong.'
The "Breath" blessing was taken out of his space-ring and laid on the terrain, Noah needed the perfect environment for his training.
'The meaning behind the lines that I've isolated is weak, it can't express much power, I'm basically trying to force a toy car to run as fast as an actual car just because I'm giving more power to it.'
No matter how strong the power source was, a toy car could never surpass an actual car, it would just explode, unable to withstand that much pressure.
In the same way, the lines of a diagram from a rank 0 spell couldn't express much power, the moment their limits were surpassed, they would simply stop working.
'My inscription method requires good materials but also a strong will. My will can be imposed on the world and produce the effects that I want without imitating the behavior of the "Breath". If I want those lines to surpass their limits, I have to add my will in them.'
Noah closed his eyes, he had become used to refine the "Breath" in his sea of consciousness by then but he had only worked with his meaning of sharpness.
However, he needed something different at that moment, something explosive!
The "Breath" in his mental sphere entered the crystalline sea while Noah focused completely on finding a new will to refine it with.