Noah had heard similar words before. Chasing Demon had already explained the difficulties connected to a broader individuality in the banquet held to honor the return of the Demons.
Heroic cultivators generally specialized in the aspects of their individualities as they grew. Their existence would then become able to affect the laws linked with them until they finally turned into something unique that didn't exist in the world.
Of course, the process would take more time if the individuality was vast and expanded in many fields.
It was a simple matter of quantity of laws. Wider individualities needed to learn how to wield more of them to become something unique.
However, cultivators had limits. Worlds could contain as many laws as they needed to work, but heroic existences were far below that level.
It was normal for someone like Shandal to worry about Noah's path. The latter was the most promising cultivator that those Mortal Lands had ever seen, and the god's mission was to defeat Heaven and Earth.
Also, Noah was the living proof of Heaven and Earth's mistakes. He was too important in that mission to risk losing him due to his insatiable ambition.
Noah didn't feel surprised when he heard the will's words. He had pondered about that matter too during his meditations. Yet, he had concluded that he was pursuing what he was. His approach was completely natural, and that was the individuality that reflected his entire existence.
He was a sword capable of destroying and creating. His sole presence could turn the "Breath" in the environment in primary energy, and his darkness could give birth to living beings.
Noah picked one of the chess pieces and inspected it before placing it down on its previous spot. He repeated that gesture for the pawns with different colors, and Shandal just studied him with a curious gaze.
As a god who had lived for millennia in a lower plane, Shandal had learnt a lot about individualities. He had seen human and heroic cultivators grow and fall as they strived for the same level that he had reached many years ago.
After so much time, he could obtain a general understanding of someone's individuality in a matter of seconds, and discern the rest from their gestures of personalities. It could be said that the god of the Empire was the maximum expert in the lower planes when it came to individualities.
Nevertheless, he couldn't understand anything when he analyzed Noah playing around with the chess pieces.
His connection with Heaven and Earth prevented him from understanding Noah's in his entirety, but he felt surprised that he couldn't even get an idea of the reason behind his action. After all, the chess pieces weren't inscribed items. He used that odd chessboard to remind him of the fauna of the Immortal Lands.
'A lot of black pieces,' Noah thought as he placed a gray pawn back in its place. 'A few white, and even fewer gray.'
The number of pieces of each color was a representation of the number of entities in each faction. From the chessboard, it was evident that magical beasts dominated the higher plane.
Noah could understand now that such an arrangement was just another challenge placed by Heaven and Earth to find what they had missed. Still, he didn't inspect the pieces for that reason.
He was trying to understand if he belonged to one of those factions.
'None of them reflect my existence,' Noah concluded in his mind after he put the grey piece back on the chessboard.
He had never felt close to the humans, and fusing with a Cursed Dragon worsened that aspect of him. His success in turning himself into a hybrid had put him into a completely different species, especially after his breakthroughs modified his centers of power further.
Noah could think like a human and understand their mindsets, but he wasn't one of them, not entirely at least. He felt much closer to the magical beasts because he liked living in the wilderness.
The lack of political restrictions and the absence of any rule suited him much. Also, power was the foundation of the world of the beasts, which was entirely in line with his existence.
However, they were limited too. Creatures driven only by instincts couldn't reflect him. They couldn't even begin to represent his complex mind.
As for the hybrids, they were part of his same species in theory. Still, even them failed to express the entirety of his existence.
After all, Noah was a fake. He had created his hybrid status through an inscription method, which was a tool used by cultivators.
Also, his path deviated from the type of hybrids of the ancestors of the natives. They would give away their individualities to obtain the power to devour laws and become the enemy of Heaven and Earth.
Truth to be told, Noah didn't know if there were other types of hybrids out there. His knowledge was limited to two Mortal Lands, and one of them had produced only him as a member of that species.
However, he still felt different from them since his hybrid status was the product of an inscription method.
"I respect you," Noah said, breaking the silence in the room and surprising Shandal, who was still confused about his previous actions.
"Still," Noah continued after a brief pause, "I don't care about any of this."
The will's ethereal eyes widened when he heard his words, but Noah was not finished yet.
"I will go against Heaven and Earth," Noah said as he laid a finger on an empty spot of the chessboard. "But this isn't my main goal. I don't care about the grudges, about your noble mission, and about their plan to use divine entities as guinea pigs. All of this is meaningless to me."
Cracks started to appear on the odd chessboard as Noah decided to put a bit of pressure on it. A large fissure eventually appeared and divided the entire item in two, making all the pieces on it fall on the table and floor.
Shandal still didn't act. He wouldn't bother about a single item when such a peculiar cultivator was showing his nature right in front of him.
"What do you care about then?" Shandal asked, failing to hide his curiosity on the matter. For someone who had lived more than fifty thousand years, seeing something so out of the schemes was refreshing other than enjoyable.
Noah increased the pressure on the broken chessboard as he replied. "I'll die if my individuality turns out to be too much to handle. I don't care. I've already died once too."
The rest of the chessboard fell apart at that point, and even the table under it shattered as Noah continued to put pressure and speak. "Yet, I won't cut away parts of me to make my path easier. I understand that you have been mesmerized by the white sky, but my eyes have never once stopped at it. I can only see the blinding stars in the black firmament."