The value of those paintings was immense. After all, each of them exuded part of the individualities of existences that had reached the divine ranks!
They were almost on par with the traces left by divine beings in the new continent in terms of benefits that could provide. Just by cultivating near one of them, a cultivator could feel encouraged to train harder and reach for higher realms.
It was a pity that they couldn't take any of them. Still, Noah and the others could always come back and cultivate there for some time after they finished exploring the castle. It was also their intention to take a look at the lands outside of that structure. They just had to decide how to proceed in that task later on.
The Demons found even a painting depicting Divine Elder Tabitha, but none of them could find one that portrayed God's Right Hand. That gave more points to Noah's hypotheses. It seemed that the god differentiated between the entities that he accompanied in the higher planes and those that ascended on their own.
All in all, there were a bit more than a dozen paintings in that hall. That gave the cultivators a vague idea about the long life of the god of the Shandal Empire.
The appearance of divine entities was a rare event. There would be a maximum of four or five of them every ten thousand years, and that only after the Mortal Lands had witnessed a period of extreme richness.
That led the group to place the god of the Empire's appearance more than thirty thousand years ago in the best-case scenario. There was a high chance that he was older than that, and their math didn't even consider the years that he had spent in the heroic ranks.
"Anyone would go crazy if he had to spend so much time trapped in a world that can't nourish him," Noah said after they concluded their calculations.
He couldn't even begin to imagine the mindset of an existence that had to live through the millennia without any possibility to cultivate.
"Sacrifice millennia of work just to stay in the higher plane for a while," Flying Demon said as he heaved a helpless sigh. "I wonder how a being with such determination ended up in this situation."
Her lover shook her head at his words. Entities on their level couldn't understand matters that involved the divine ranks.
June, Faith, and Daniel spent their time in the hall wearing mesmerized expressions. They would have never thought that they could come so close to beings that appeared in legends described in precious records stored only by powerful organizations.
The experience benefitted their mindset greatly since they could finally put a face on beings that appeared so lofty in their minds. The divine existences weren't unreachable entities anymore. They were just incredible cultivators that had left their mark in history.
The same went for Joel, who improved his control over his instincts in those short hours. It was as if those paintings kindled the ambition inside his human side.
Noah and the Demons tried to identify Divine Architect, but their search didn't lead to anything. The paintings didn't follow any order, and the three of them only knew that she was a woman. They could guess what her individuality could be according to the fame that surrounded her figure, but that wasn't enough to connect her to an actual image.
The group eventually left the hall to continue the exploration of the castle, using the same formation that they had used since the beginning of their mission.
The snakes explored any new area before the cultivators and made sure that they were devoid of any danger. Noah though kept special attention on Joel since anything carrying a powerful aura could trigger his instincts again.
The other halls of the castle contained powerful items on a similar level to those that they had found in the previous parts of the structure.
The group found a series of intricate diagrams drawn on scrolls made by a series of precious materials at the peak of the sixth rank. The diagram themselves radiated an eerie aura that seemed to affect the air lingering in front of them.
They found a hall filled with weapons that even Dreaming Demon couldn't near due to the threatening pressure that they released. Some of those weapons appeared to be masterpieces in the seventh rank too. Still, the group had to leave that area without seizing anything.
Almost all the halls contained items at the peak of the sixth rank or directly at a divine level. Yet, the group found it impossible to seize any of them due to the power that they radiated or specific defenses in place.
They started to feel lucky that the stuffed winged beast didn't have any form of protection around it, and the most reliable hypothesis was that the god didn't have enough time to place it. After all, that ornament was the only material that escaped the pattern of the castle.
There weren't only powerful items. Some of the halls contained strange things that weren't necessarily strong or threatening.
The group found a hall dedicated to a strange powder that distorted the space around it even if it was only a rank 4 material. They saw a metal that never stopped changing form in another one, and that could become gaseous at some point.
Odd materials, powerful beings, and mysterious creations filled the castle, and the group had only managed to seize one item.
The eight of them eventually reached a room that had an empty white throne placed at its center.
There was a chessboard on a table near the throne, and a series of pawns surrounded it without apparent order. When the cultivators neared the table, they sensed a series of auras coming from those items.
The auras were familiar. The chessboard resembled the sky, and the pawns carried a softer version of the individualities carried by the paintings!
Noah and the others didn't know what to think at that sight. The scene was too strange for them even to begin to formulate hypotheses.
While they were busy analyzing the table, the ethereal figure of an old man appeared on the throne and began to speak. "It has never happened that someone reached this place without destroying the nation above."
The cultivators and hybrids felt startled by that sudden appearance, but they quickly understood that the figure was only a will. Even if it belonged to a divine existence, there was a limit to how much he could do.
"Don't worry," The will said with an ancient voice, "We are on the same side. All the cultivators going against Heaven and Earth are my allies. This applies twice on you, man of two worlds."
The will had turned his gaze toward Noah toward the end of his phrase, and he could only give voice to a question as he tried to suppress the surprise that he felt. "Who are you?"
The will smiled and gave a simple answer. "I'm Shandal."