'The Enduring demon sect was said to have techniques that directly affected the bloodlines of its members.'
Noah thought as he neared the slave with a peculiar body.
Icy Cascade didn't even try to stop him, those Credits were more than enough to cover for the work of one cultivator.
Noah could guess that the cultivator from the Wardens was rising issues on purpose, but he didn't care if the Empire wanted to use that chance to rip him off.
Money was useless in his mind, and he was rich anyway, he could casually throw even a few millions of Credits without blinking.
The slave didn't even notice his presence, he just kept on breaking the surface of the dark-gray mountain with the pickaxe in his grasp.
Noah applied a bit of pressure with his mental sphere, and the man became confused for a moment.
Yet, it immediately resumed its work when his mind stabilized.
'Rank 3 body, rank 2 dantian, and rank 1 sea of consciousness… The Empire even forces them to cultivate.'
Noah thought as his mental waves probed the state of the slave's mind.
The latter's mental sphere couldn't do anything against his inspection, the difference in the power of their minds was simply immense.
Noah could read his thoughts as if they were words on an open book, but that only confirmed his suspects.
The insides of the slave's mind were murky, his sea didn't radiate any form of light, and a black smoke occupied the rest of his sphere.
His half-transparent figure was full of cracks that resembled a tight array of chains that covered the entirety of his ethereal body.
'This man is broken to the core, he can't give me any answer. The chains of the Empire are indeed scary.'
"How much for him?"
Noah said after having those thoughts.
He couldn't obtain an answer, but that didn't mean that Chasing Demon couldn't either.
"No slave can leave the working area alive. The Empire has a wide choice of purchasable cultivators, but these ones are not for-"
Icy Cascade began to speak, but a sudden pressure generated by Noah's mental energy forced her to stop.
The man in front of him collapsed on the ground, and the shining lines on the surface of his chains turned dark as life abandoned his body.
"He is dead now. How much?"
Noah asked again as he turned toward the heroic cultivator standing in the air behind him.
The soldiers in the structure near them could only hold their breath when they saw that scene.
They couldn't understand who was stronger between Noah and Icy Cascade, but they were sure that their lives would be in danger if a battle were to happen there.
After all, Noah was doing whatever he wanted without caring about the rules of that area.
However, they were only human cultivators, and they knew that beings in the heroic ranks had values that they couldn't even begin to comprehend.
Icy Cascade stared at the corpse of the slave for a while.
Noah was correct in thinking that she wanted to exploit his presence, but his actions were too direct, and he didn't show any interest in money.
He was just taking the shortest approach toward his target, raising the intensity of his forcefulness at each new problem.
Icy Cascade felt the cold, vertical pupils on her body as she inspected the dead slave.
Sweat began to fall from her forehead as that stall continued.
She had to admit that she didn't know how far the Demon Prince of the Hive was willing to go to obtain what he wanted.
Noah was famous for enraging forces far more potent than him, but a direct attack there would cause substantial repercussions on the organization behind him.
However, Icy Cascade didn't know if he cared about that.
The real issue with the unorthodox organizations was that they didn't act according to the common sense of the orthodox ones.
After all, the Hive had been launching an assassination campaign against the Utra nation while the territories of the Empire were under attack!
The three big nations weren't even aware of its presence in the new continent at that time!
How could she predict the behavior of someone who had spent his life defying higher powers?
She couldn't, and she didn't want to risk her life to learn more about it.
"O-one million for the corpse, but you can't take the chains."
In the end, she forced herself to stutter those words.
Noah waved his hand, and a big pile of shining crystals appeared on the terrain next to him.
Heroic cultivators wouldn't see that sum as spectacular, but the soldiers in the distance froze when they saw all that wealth.
They couldn't help but think that those entities in the heroic ranks lived in a completely different world.
Then, Noah went for the corpse and tore the chain around the neck of the slave with a swift gesture.
The hard alloy of that inscribed item was powerless against his physical strength.
It didn't even bend, it only fell apart.
Noah stored the corpse of the slave and turned to leave at that point.
He had obtained what he wanted, it would be up to the elders to see if they could find the technique that had caused the slight modifications in the man's bloodline.
'They might be able to reverse engineer the techniques or methods used on his bloodline in the past. The Enduring demon sect might be restored if those techniques turn out to belong to that organization.'
Noah thought as he began to fly back toward the western coast, but he decided to leave a few words before his departure.
"I might have other tasks that concern the territories of the Shandal Empire in the future. I will personally inform the Patriarch of the hospitality provided by the Wardens."
The group from the Empire could only stare as his figure disappeared in the distance after those words.
The human soldiers heaved a sigh of relief when they saw Noah leaving, but Icy Cascade remained somewhat worried.
She couldn't understand if Noah was threatening her, or just trying to be polite.
Either way, it was clear that he would return, he wouldn't have just warned her otherwise.
Noah simply flew back to the Lutren nation after that meeting.
There was a teleportation matrix connected with the Coral archipelago there, and Noah didn't mind wasting a few weeks to deliver the corpse of the possible descendant of the Enduring demon sect.
He was taking the slowest approach to the task on purpose, he was enjoying the freedom that his new mission had given him after all.
The long flights could be used to translate diagrams, train, and meditate on his individuality, the task didn't hinder his growth in any way.
'The clues concerning the Morphing demon sect lead to the Utra nation, but I don't see the Royals welcoming me as the Empire has done. I should focus on the central area of the old continent for now.'
Noah thought as he resumed his journey, the next clues pointed toward the mystical fog.