Noah was left with only thirty-six slaves before he decided to take a different approach but only twenty of them could be matched with the magical beasts chained in the underground structure.
That number further diminished as Noah continued with his experiments.
It took a few attempts before he could tune his instincts, more slaves died when the fusion reached the internal organs, but, ultimately, he managed to achieve some small success.
Noah's concentration was at its peak as he controlled the fusion between an elderly man and a Fog hawk, refined liquid "Breath" of the wind element continued to be depleted as the organs of the slaves were modified.
That was the twelfth time that he had reached that point, three slaves had died before his instincts became able to match the perfect magical beast for each cultivator but he had finally reached the final part of the fusion.
The eleven slaves before that had either died due to the pain or to some form of rejection that Noah was still unable to suppress.
Yet, after sacrificing seventy-eight slaves, Noah seemed to have finally mastered the procedure!
Almost nothing remained of the corpse of the magical beast, only part of its organs remained solid.
Noah couldn't just fuse them together, he had to modify them one by one and wait for the fusion to stabilize before moving to the next one.
He had started with the organs that were less vital to the beast and that didn't express its capabilities with much intensity, Noah had learnt long ago that he had to be sure that the body could handle the abilities of the beast before he proceeded in passing them to the cultivator.
The most important organs of the Fog hawk were its eyes, they were able to clearly see through an environment filled with fog or smoke and could also recognize where the "Breath" was thicker in those locations.
Fog hawks could innately use those spots to burst with a sudden acceleration that could catch any prey by surprise.
Noah didn't know how much of that ability would be passed down on the slave, most of that knowledge could only be tested once a hybrid was forged, he was focused only on creating the procedure right now.
However, for how things were proceeding, it seemed that he was going to discover it soon.
The internal organs of the magical beast liquefied one by one, Noah carefully fused them with those of the elderly man and contained the rejection before using the refined liquid "Breath" to liquefy another organ.
Little by little, the fusion between the slave and the beast was being completed.
There was something that he hadn't noticed though and that even the elder of his group couldn't sense due to the proprieties of the mystical fog that surrounded the underground structure where he was working.
As the fusion proceeded, black clouds began to form on the sky right above Noah's facility.
Lightning cracked inside them, the aura radiated from their shape carried an ominous feeling which seemed to target the red ground below them.
Noah was unaware of that event and continued to focus on the fusion.
The hearts fused, the lungs did the same, even the brains were successfully mixed, Noah took a deep breath as he moved his gaze on the eyes of the elderly man.
The slave seemed to have lost consciousness as the internal organs survived the Elemental forging method, it was as if his body shut down to become used to its changes.
Noah memorized those details but he didn't think much about it, there would be time to analyze the procedure with the Divine deduction technique after the first hybrid was forged.
The eyes of the Fog hawk liquefied under the influence of the "Breath" of the wind element, nothing was left of the beast, Noah could place his other hand on the cultivator now that it was free.
The liquefied eyes entered the cultivator's ones and began to modify their structure, blood came out of the shut eyelids as the unnecessary parts were expelled under Noah's control.
Excitement rose inside Noah as he saw that the fusion was almost completed, he just needed to mix the last bits of the beast and wait for that organ to stabilize before he could start studying the capabilities of his creation.
However, just as the eyes of both beings were about to fuse completely, a bolt of lightning fell from the black clouds in the sky and landed on the ground above the underground structure, piercing it with its might.
Noah felt a sudden dangerous feeling coming from above him, he instinctively retreated when his consciousness calculated the trajectory of the attack, dethatching both his hands from the almost complete hybrid.
The bolt of lightning missed him but landed precisely on the elderly man who was just about to open his eyes.
An explosion resounded in the underground area where Noah performed his experiments, Noah expanded his consciousness as much as he could to understand what had happened.
The first thing he noticed was that the slave was dead, the lightning had centered his head, dividing his body in two and carbonizing those two halves, only a few burned pieces of flesh remained on the floor.
Then, he noticed the black clouds on the sky, they seemed focused on the area where Noah was and dispersed shortly after the slave was killed.
Noah stared at the sky through the hole created by the lightning bolt with a pensive gaze but his thoughts were soon interrupted by the arrival of a powerful consciousness that neared him at full speed.
"Prince! Are you ok? Don't tell me that you failed the Heaven Tribulation!"
The voice of the elder of his group resounded in the underground structure, the meaning behind his words slightly startled Noah.
"I'm fine, Elder Ian. Why would you think about the Tribulation though?"
Noah answered when an elderly man wearing a purple robe with red tentacles embroidered on its sleeves appeared next to him, he had long white hair and his eyes showed the relief he felt when he saw that Noah was fine.
After hearing his question though, his gaze returned serious and he raised his eyes toward the hole created by the lightning bolt before answering.
"That was the lightning that Heaven and Earth use during the Heaven Tribulation."