'Lightning of the Heaven Tribulation!'
Noah understood something when he heard the answer of the elder.
"Elder Ian, are you really sure about this?"
Noah asked once again before making any supposition.
Elder Ian nodded without moving his gaze from the hole on the ceiling and gave more information about that event.
"Black clouds carrying the wrath of Heaven and Earth unleash lightning of great might to destroy the cultivator that aims to reach the heroic ranks. I remember those bolts of lightning too well to be mistaken."
Elder Ian was a heroic cultivator, meaning that he had survived the Heaven Tribulation to reach that level.
"You weren't attempting to reach the fourth rank of the dantian, right?"
Elder Ian asked as he moved his gaze on Noah.
He was aware that Noah was a peculiar existence but he also knew some details about the level of his dantian.
After all, he had fought as a gaseous stage cultivator in the war for the independence of the archipelago, it was impossible that Noah had reached the peak of the solid stage in those years.
Also, before his Earth Tribulation, his cultivation level was completely exposed to the elders of the Hive, he simply didn't have the power to hide it.
That's why Elder Ian was quite sure that he hadn't approached the Heaven Tribulation and that the lightning bolt must have been caused by something else.
"No, I was busy with something and all of sudden the lightning came."
Noah answered without revealing much, the gaze of the elder went on the remains of the slave after he heard those words.
"I don't know what you are doing here but it seems that Heaven and Earth don't like it. I suggest you stop or take the necessary precautions before continuing, the next time the lightning bolt might aim at you."
Elder Ian spoke without probing Noah's affairs.
Every cultivator had its secrets, especially someone like Noah who was periodically provided with an incredible amount of resources.
The elders of the Hive had long guessed that he was attempting in creating a cultivation technique or a nourishing method, many of them were doing the same after all.
It was custom among cultivators to never probe someone else's techniques or researches, they were strictly linked to the power of a cultivator and knowing exactly how they worked could reveal eventual weaknesses.
Also, Noah was the Demon Prince, his position was quite important and he had shown many times that he was worthy of it, it was simply better to not create any enmity with him.
Noah was silent.
The words of the elder had given him enough clues to understand what was going on.
'It seems that the last hurdle in the creation of a hybrid is Heaven itself…I need to ask for the help of the Hive once again.'
Noah immediately decided to rely on his organization when his thoughts reached that point, he simply couldn't solve that problem by himself.
"How long will it take for the connection with the archipelago to be completed?"
Noah asked as soon as he set his mind, he needed for the teleportation matrix to work before he started the next phase of his experiments.
"Kate is almost done, it won't take more than a week before this encampment becomes able to transport living beings."
Elder Ian answered and Noah nodded in satisfaction, he had enough time to prepare his next steps.
Noah didn't spend time in the underground facility in the following days, it was clear that Heaven and Earth didn't want to see the birth of a hybrid so he needed to make the right arrangements before continuing to forge.
He met with the slave trader again in those days, only fifty slaves with a rank 3 body were purchased that time, Noah was quite sure that they would be enough.
Also, Noah had requested for the less trained ones that time, he needed slaves that had still traces of their personality to match them with a proper magical beast, he couldn't risk purchasing someone who was already devoid of any will.
The slaves would be forced to do anything Noah said anyway, he had learnt long ago that he could just order them to do their best instead of giving them false hopes, the first method turned out to be more effective during his experiments.
Then, Noah made a list of the magical beasts that he needed and notified the Hive about his request.
Magical beasts were hard to subdue but Noah had only asked for creatures in the third rank, one heroic cultivator was enough to complete his task.
The listed beasts perfectly matched the personality of the newly bought slaves and that of those still chained inside his underground facility.
The connection with the archipelago was about to be set up, Noah wasn't limited anymore to the fauna of the mystical fog.
In the end, he requested liquid "Breath" in the third rank of various elements, that was the fuel for his Elemental forging method after all.
The preparations were completed one day before the teleportation matrix was completed, the Efrana nation and the Coral archipelago were finally connected after that!
A group of cultivators came out of Noah's mansion that day, they were the new troops that the Hive had decided to send to the encampment but they were only rank 2 cultivators, only their captain was in the third rank.
That manpower was needed to recruit more tribes and to further enlarge the area covered by the encampment, the main intention of the Hive was to increase the power of its human assets in the end.
The captain though carried the resources requested by Noah, as well as a rank 4 inscribed item!
Noah inspected the contents of the rings before nodding in satisfaction and sending the captain away, everyone had a role in the encampment so he didn't need to handle it, he could completely focus on his experiments.
Yet, he still needed the help of the elder to use the rank 4 item.
"Please, Elder."
Noah bowed as he handed a set of eight small flags covered in runes to Elder Ian.
The latter simply took them and injected his "Breath" inside them before stabbing the flags on the ground in the area where Noah's underground facility was.
The flags lit up when all of them were on the ground and the runes on their surface slowly flew in the air before landing on the area demarcated by the flags.