An explosion filled the air where Noah had deployed his defenses with flames, making the sky become red due to the width of the blast.
Noah felt a surge of power filling his body before he started to be affected by the heat radiated by Fred's attack.
The Black hole spell absorbed part of the "Breath" contained in the attack before being overwhelmed by the heat, the defensive layers in front of the tortoise shell broke as the flames advanced.
More layers were created under Noah's control, but they weren't able to keep up with the advance of the heat, the flames soon reached the black shell and filled its surface with cracks.
Noah's Blood companion screamed in pain as its shell was broken, the flames burned its body, and cracks appeared over its half-transparent figure in Noah's sea of consciousness as the creature endured the attack.
Then, Fred's attack reached Noah's ethereal form hidden inside the Blood companion.
Noah felt a burning sensation filling his body and injuring him through his Ethereal form spell.
The power behind Fred's attack even surpassed that of the flames of the rank 5 Cursed dragon in the Granite Abyss, Noah felt his internal organs boil under the incredible heat radiated by that attack.
Yet, after a few seconds, the flames dispersed, the sky returned to its natural azure color, and Noah's figure appeared out in the open.
White smoke came out of Noah's body, burned patches of skin could be seen everywhere under his tattered robe, and smoke even came out from his mouth as he breathed, it was as if something inside him was still burning.
'That bastard!'
Noah cursed in his mind as he directed the energy absorbed by the Black hole spell toward his injuries, he also ate a piece of a magical beast's corpse from his space-ring to increase the healing speed.
The power behind Fred's attack was similar to a spell cast by a solid stage cultivator, it was far more potent than the casual attack of a weakened rank 5 magical beasts.
Yet, Noah had improved too much since his trip to the Granite abyss, especially for what concerned his body.
'Zac absorbed a lot of damage and my spells did a lot of work too. Yet, my body endured a lot of power and survived with just these injuries, great!'
Noah happily thought when he evaluated his injuries.
His condition wasn't optimal, but only the wounds on his internal organs would take a few weeks to heal, the charred skin would be completely fixed in a matter of hours.
What left him satisfied was that his spells, together with Zac and his powerful body, made him able to endure the attack of a solid stage cultivator!
As for Zac, that was the name that he had given to the peak rank 4 Dark turtle that he had transformed in his Blood companion.
"How?"
Fred spoke in a soft voice when he realized that Noah had survived.
His mood was further worsened by the fact that Noah seemed mostly fine, the attack that had cost him his dantian wasn't even able to leave a lasting injury.
A sharp pain spread from his back, Fred lowered his head only to see that a wind blade had created a large fissure on his chest.
He felt his mind growing dark as he raised his gaze once again toward Noah, he could only have one last thought before life abandoned his body.
'He was just a bit stronger than Samuel back then.'
Then, his lifeless body began to fall from the sky, but Elder Laurel quickly grabbed it, she knew that Noah stored the corpses of the heroic cultivators that they killed.
"Are you ok?"
Elder Hope appeared in the air next to Noah and asked, she seemed really concerned about his condition.
"Yes, let me see his corpse."
Noah plainly answered as he neared Elder Laurel, a disappointed expression appeared on his face when his consciousness analyzed Fred's low waist.
'His dantian is wasted, there is nothing left in there, and even its tissues have been drained. Damned nobles.'
Noah cursed in his mind as he gestured to Laurel to keep the corpse, he had no use for it.
"How did you survive that attack? I'm quite sure that its power had reached the solid stage."
Elder Jason asked as he flew toward him, the rest of the group gathered around Noah too, their expressions showed how amazed they were after witnessing that accomplishment.
"My defense is good."
Noah casually answered before adding something else.
"And my element is darkness."
Noah's words reminded the other cultivators of his aptitude.
He was supposedly the weaker of the group due to his inexperience, but he still had one of the rarest aptitudes, his spells and attacks would naturally be more powerful compared to those of the other elements.
Of course, that answer alone didn't solve the doubts of the cultivators, not all of them at least.
They were experienced heroic cultivators who had lived for far longer than Noah and had acc.u.mulated way more experience, they knew that aptitude alone couldn't fill the gaps between the gaseous and solid stage.
They were sure that Noah hid some sort of secret, but they decided not to probe further, every cultivator had its secrets after all, it wasn't polite to investigate them.
"Can you continue the mission?"
Elder Hope asked when she saw that everyone had given up on probing Noah's power.
"Yes, but it would be better if I rested for a bit."
Hope's nodded to reply to Noah's answer, she gestured to the group to surveil the area while she accompanied Noah to the snowy ground.
"I'll contact the elders and make them handle the space-rings of the cultivators, they should have been sentries placed at the borders of the territories controlled by the Utra nation. Recover as much as you can while I reorganize the group."
Elder Hope spoke those words before flying back in the sky, Noah stared at her figure for a while before taking Lois' dantian and quickly eating it.