Noah destroyed the poisonous bullets and stared at his departing opponent. The sudden retreat of the troops of the Empire confused him, but everything made more sense when he inspected the battlefield.
A few rank 5 members of the Elbas family had gathered near the ground, where the green corpse of a man floated on the swamp. Noah didn't recognize him, but the amount of attention that those experts were giving him hinted that he had to be on their same level.
The Empire had managed to kill a rank 5 cultivator of the invading forces without suffering any casualty for what concerned experts on the same rank. Also, it had managed to inflict a lot of damage even on the other assets.
Noah could see how most heroic cultivators on his side had green spots on their skin together with various injuries. Those spots slowly spread through their bodies and affected their healing properties too. It was clear that those existences were in dire need of special care.
The new defensive battle style of the Empire had only focused on weakening the invaders, without caring about preventing the loss of the region. It was as if the defenders had sacrificed that territory to slow down the enemy army while also preserving as many assets as possible.
Of course, the Empire had suffered some losses too, but they only concerned the human assets and the heroic cultivators in the fourth rank.
The invaders had won the battle and obtained a new territory, but the state of their troops didn't make it feel like a victory.
'I don't know if they just want to gain time because they hope for the return of their god,' Noah thought at the sight of that scene, 'Or if they are up to something.'
The records retrieved in the Mortal Palace were entirely accurate, and Thirty-seven had even vouched for them. After all, anything that a divine entity had deemed worthy of keeping couldn't be false.
So, Noah didn't feel inclined to believe in his first hypothesis.
Their faith in the Almighty might have blinded the cultivators of the Empire, but they were experts in the art of war. Their tactical retreat was just a piece of a strategy that they had set in motion.
The only issue was that Noah couldn't know where such a plan would uncover itself, and he knew that even his allies were clueless about that. There had always been spies among the three big nations, but the security was impenetrable when it came to those pieces of information.
'I wonder if it will be here or in the old continent,' Noah thought before putting those problems in the back of his mind.
He was almost sure that they would eventually walk into a trap, but he couldn't know when or where that would happen. He didn't have a way to discover that either, so he could only focus on his power.
"Let's go back to the encampment," Elder Julia said after nearing him, "We have to send the injured back to the headquarters."
Noah nodded at her words and began to help to carry the wounded heroic cultivators of the Hive outside of that poisonous swamp. Some rank 4 Elders were barely able to stand in the air due to the toxins inside them, so they needed some help in returning to a safe area.
Noah's actions weren't purely selfless. The poison spread through physical contact, and Noah was the only one capable of resisting its effects due to his hybrid body. Also, he could carry more than dozens of cultivators at the same time, so he was quite handy.
That green substance had infected even some rank 5 Elders, but they were able to limit its effects with their powerful "Breath" and didn't need help in returning to the encampment.
As for the human cultivators, Danielle handled their evacuation since she could control the hybrids among them. She simply ordered them to act as mounts that the other assets could use to escape the swamp.
The injured didn't stop at the encampment though. Noah and the other hybrids carried them in the central territories, where a cloaked formation lit up at their passage.
The troops suddenly found themselves inside the separate dimension when the light of the formation engulfed them, and they couldn't help but notice two powerful figures looking at them with a curious expression.
"War has indeed changed in these years," Flying Demon said at the sight of those cultivators full of green spots. "A poison able to affect heroic cultivators in this way didn't exist back then."
"Anything coming from the Immortal Lands can hurt heroic cultivators," Noah replied to him while dropping on the ground the pile of cultivators that he was carrying on his shoulders. "Don't tell me that you can still feel bored after everything that you've been through."
"Prince, it's been a long time since we had a real battle," Dreaming Demon said when she saw that her lover had been made out. "You should understand our feelings better than anyone."
Noah could only reveal a smirk at her words. Dreaming Demon was right. Fighting against enemies on that level was extremely satisfying.
It had been a long time since enemies on his same rank managed to last so much against him. Most of the time, they would always fall apart whenever Noah revealed the power of his body or his modified spells.
However, rank 5 cultivators could match his blows. Some of them had trump cards, while others were even able to push him into a passive position.
They were enemies on an entirely different level. Each of them had a battle style that they had honed for centuries. They were perfect in their judgment and expression of their power.
Noah had been able to kill Countless Wings because she was unaware of the full potential of his abilities and Silent Lightning because his spells were a bad match for Noah. Yet, even if he was overall stronger than both of them with his hybrid status and personal "Breath", he had still needed to surprise them to obtain a victory.
Those struggles were slowly bringing his battle style to a higher level, and Noah learnt more about his weaknesses as he fought those powerful beings.
To put it simply, he would be lying if he said that he wasn't enjoying those bloody fights were perfection was the minimum requirement to come out of them alive.
"Your turn will come," Noah said as he changed the topic. "A hidden weapon is scary precisely because it's hidden. I believe I don't have to explain this to you."
Flying Demon released a laugh at his words and patted Noah's shoulder. The Elder was eager to fight, but he knew that Noah was right.
After that short conversation, Thirty-seven appeared next to them and activated a teleportation matrix inside the separate dimension to bring the injured troops on the southwestern coast. Before leaving though, the automaton handed a few tomes to Noah.