The insides of the fissure didn't contain any trace of light. There was only the complete darkness in front of the heroic assets, and even their mental waves couldn't help them in that environment. Their mental waves simply dispersed when they tried to spread them through the darkness.
The group of forty-four cultivators advanced slowly and let the four rank 5 existences take the lead. Their minds were powerful enough to inspect their surroundings without wasting too much mental energy, so it was their task to lead the troops on the other side.
Noah inspected the environment too, but he could only feel disappointed when he sensed that there was nothing at all around him.
They were in what seemed to be a tunnel without solid boundaries. The passage had the same shape of the vertical fissure in the portal, but its edges often mixed with the void outside of them.
'Are we in space?' Noah thought when he lost control of his mental waves and condensed his consciousness inside his mind.
Even rank 5 mages couldn't study the area as they wished. They could only keep track of where they were going.
'No.' Noah answered to himself. 'The tunnel itself is a dimension that connects two lower planes. Amazing.'
Even Noah had to recognize that King Elbas' feat was exceptional as he ventured through the darkness.
There was nothing in the records retrieved in the Mortal Palace about cultivators exploring other lower planes. There was a high chance that King Elbas had been the first to make that kind of journey possible.
The records spoke about experts researching other worlds, but there was nothing that mentioned exploring them!
As for why he had succeeded where many had failed, Noah had a few ideas already.
'A country that pushed the researches in the inscription field to their limits and a material born from the power of five rank 6 cultivators.' Noah thought. 'Yet, only a true expert could make use of them to connect two worlds.'
There weren't enough praises to describe King Elbas' achievement, and they even increased as some features of the tunnel became evident.
Noah felt as if he was being teleported every time he took a step forward. The dimension seemed to condense the space, which allowed the group to cross kilometers with each centimeter that they passed.
Of course, there was a limit to how much Noah could understand with the short investigations that his mind was capable of. Yet, there were a few evident features that the passage revealed.
The door didn't teleport them directly in the new world. Instead, it led them inside an unstable passage that made them able to cross vast distances in a few steps!
'I wonder how many resources did the Elbas family invest in this project.' Noah wondered before suppressing that thought when he noticed that the density of "Breath" around him had suddenly increased.
A pale red light began to illuminate the passage, and another fissure appeared in front of the heroic assets as their advance continued.
The cultivators in the exploration team couldn't contain their emotions and increased their pace toward the end of the passage, and the rank 5 entities did the same.
They were about to step into a different world. That small action was enough to make their names last for millennia!
Noah felt excited too, but he didn't care about glory. His interest was on the lifeforms that filled that plane, as well as the techniques and spells that it could contain if humans inhabited the lands ahead.
The group quickly reached the red fissure and crossed its edges without any hesitation.
A rocky environment appeared in their vision, and the source of that light turned out to be an underground river of magma that flowed right under them.
The portal had connected them to a narrow underground area.
The cultivators spread their consciousness to inspect the environment and sighed in relief when they sensed that there wasn't any lifeform nearby.
"Quick, stabilize the exit!" Cecil ordered, and the cultivators in his faction took out inscribed items that they activated and deployed around the fissure floating in the area.
The members of the other factions fixed their gazes on the ten nobles and Royals to make sure that they didn't try to scheme anything. A dense pressure fell on the cultivators from the Utra nation when the four rank 5 mages began to inspect their every movement.
The other nations had barely managed to prepare their defenses before deploying their troops to join the mission, but the Elbas family was different.
The silver-haired Royals knew about King Elbas' plan, so they had focused on developing suitable items for the journey during the period before the opening of the portal.
That gave a lot of power to the Royal's faction during the exploration since its cultivators owned specific items that benefitted the entirety of the team.
Yet, only the rank 5 cultivators chosen for the mission knew about that, and even Noah was in the dark.
The cultivators from the Utra nation surrounded the fissure with glowing spheres and strange nails that seemed to stabilize its edges. Then, some of them took out a series of brown runes that surrounded the crack and created another layer of defense.
Noah kept his eyes on June for most of that process, but he didn't fail to inspect the other devices too.
The purpose of those items became apparent after a few inspections, and the heroic cultivators from the other nations were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Royals had come extremely prepared.
There were cloaking devices meant to hide the presence of the fissure, items that stabilized its structure, and even orbs intended for long-distance communications! Also, those inscribed items worked in perfect harmony with the edges of the passage, which showed how they had been built specifically for that task.
Noah and Elder Austin glanced at each other before moving their focus back on the fissure. That short exchange of looks was enough to convey their amazement and helplessness about the distance between their organization and the Elbas family for what concerned the inscription fields.
Cecil waited for each of those items to start working before speaking in a polite tone. "The Elbas family has provided the passage and all the required items for the mission. I'm sure the other nations won't forget this."
He then sent a series of folded sheets flying toward all the rank 4 cultivators of the other factions.
Noah quickly browsed through the words written on the sheets only to see that short descriptions appeared in his mind at that act. The reports concerned the usage and function of each item set around the fissure. They even mentioned some specifics that involved the insides of the portal.
'They are playing fair.' Noah thought as he stored the sheets and moved his gaze toward the ceiling of the underground area.
The other cultivators noticed his action and moved their gazes there too.
"Let's resurface." Gray Fury said, and the team quietly followed his rising figure.