During his seclusion, Noah had experimented a lot.
The failures with his forgings sometime exploded, ruining Noah's robe in the process.
Noah didn't care about his ragged clothes while he was in seclusion, his mind was completely focused on his training but, now that he had to meet an elder, he had to appear somewhat presentable.
He was the Demon Prince after all, he couldn't reappear after four years in that poor aspect.
"I think I'll call an outer disciple before going out."
Noah said as he sighed under Bruce's approving gaze.
The servants inside Noah's mansion quickly took care of his aspect.
They prepared a hot bath filled with many delicate perfumes to remove four years of accumulated sweat and dirt.
Then, they cut his hair a bit and combed them in a seemingly noble manner, it was pointless to say how bored Noah was through the whole process.
A luxurious robe had also been prepared, it was black and tight just like Noah liked but faint tentacles of a purple color were draped around its sleeves, giving those clothes some aristocratic feeling.
The rank 5 magical beast that had appeared during the war became some sort of worshipped creature in the eyes of the weaker cultivators of the archipelago, many symbols and clothes featuring its images could be seen everywhere in the islands.
'Peace surely make the weaklings lose focus, if only they knew that this creature is being held captive somewhere under the exoskeleton…'
Noah sighed internally as he noticed how the archipelago had changed during his seclusion, he guessed that the low-level cultivators were unaware of the reasons behind the victory of the underground organizations.
However, none of that concerned Noah.
He quickly went for a teleportation matrix after his beauty treatment was completed, the servants and the other guards that saw him walk toward the shore of his small island wore respectful expressions as they bowed at his passage.
The light of the teleportation engulfed his figure and the scenery in front of his eyes changed, the sky was replaced by a familiar purple ceiling.
He was back inside the exoskeleton, where the headquarters of the Chasing Demon sect once were.
The heroic cultivators of the Hive rarely cultivated on the surface, the "Breath" they needed to advance was found inside the matter of the world and carried the laws that Heaven and Earth had set for its functioning, they couldn't risk destroying the islands that they had conquered after many struggles.
Noah went back inside the exoskeleton precisely to meet a heroic cultivator, namely Elder Iris.
She had handled the human matters of the Chasing Demon sect before and was still doing the same now that all the organizations named themselves as Hive.
Her habitation was also the same, Noah had no trouble going back to the underground cave, hidden under the purple terrain.
"Demon Prince, I wonder what is the reasons behind the request of this meeting."
Elder Iris was seated, as usual, at the center of the cave as she spoke without opening her eyes.
Noah couldn't help but notice that her power seemed to have increased but he wasn't sure by how much, what he felt was mostly a sensation after all.
"I need even more "Breath" blessings, my last requests had been ignored so I decided to ask for them personally."
Noah went right to the point.
He had obtained good results with his experimentations, he could have already created a rank 3 cultivation technique if he wanted.
Yet, he would rather wait until his technique reached the fourth rank before starting to cultivate with it, his current training method was in the fourth rank after all, Noah wouldn't ever purposely slow his cultivation speed.
However, he could only attempt to condense more mass as he tried to push the rank of his cultivation technique upward, meaning that every failure would waste enormous quantities of "Breath" blessings.
"Your expenses already match those of some heroic cultivators, Prince. Please understand that we can't slow the growth of the archipelago because of a single human cultivator."
Noah snorted seeing that Elder Iris had no intention of accepting his requests.
"Hmph, I've also helped more than any heroic cultivator, the archipelago wouldn't be in this state if it wasn't for me."
Noah spoke, he wasn't going to give up now that he was so close.
Elder Iris opened her eyes and stared Noah, she heaved a loud sigh when she looked at his determined expression.
"Prince, you are going to experience your Earth tribulation soon, which is an absurd feat for someone of your age. Are you sure you aren't pushing yourself too much? Creating a cultivation technique takes time, even Chasing Demon was able to do it only after he reached the fifth rank."
Elder Iris was aware of many of Noah's capabilities.
She was a heroic cultivator, her eyes could see right through his centers of power and she could understand what Noah was attempting to create.
Her words made Noah go silent, there was some truth behind them.
"I don't know the specifics behind what you are trying to do but you must remember that the straight path isn't always the shortest one. Maybe the path that you've chosen is wrong and it has a fatal flaw that you are still unable to see, or maybe you lack the experience needed to take a step forward. Remember that there is always a limit to how much one can improve in seclusion."
She spoke again, her pointers were spoken honestly, she seemed to really care about Noah's growth.
Noah stood silently as he reviewed Elder Iris' words.
He knew that she was right, there seemed to be something that he couldn't do no matter how much he deduced or experimented.
That was the forging of an item in the heroic ranks.
'Ivor managed to forge it while being a human cultivator, his love was so strong that he even forgot about cultivation to focus on the Elemental forging method.'
He lowered his head as he continued to think about the matter.
'I'm different. My will carries my ambition which is strictly linked with my centers of power. I can't sacrifice one thing just to obtain another. Maybe, that's what I'm lacking.'
His cultivation technique would enter the perfection phase once he managed to push his creations in the heroic ranks but there seemed to be something stopping him from taking that last step.
"I wish to see the missions available right now."
Noah spoke and his words surprised Elder Iris.