Noah was in the liquid stage of the fifth rank now. His path toward the sixth rank required him to learn how to wield the laws to aim to become one eventually.
However, the laws were elusive, and Noah couldn't touch their world whenever he wanted. He had interacted with them far more than other cultivators at his level, but he wasn't able to control them yet.
His abilities made use of his understanding already, but it wasn't a proper control. It was only a natural consequence that came with his improvements.
That was why he would seize any chance he found to make contact with the world of the laws. He managed to reach that state more often since he had improved his second rune, but those moments were still sparse and unpredictable.
Seeing the world through Shandal's eyes gave him a vague idea of the mindsets that divine entities had when interacting with matter. They didn't think. Their whole beings appeared made of emotions.
That realization matched his leading theory about the laws, even if he knew that Shandal didn't put all of himself in those memories.
Noah saw the laws as soft instincts that helped any cultivator in matters involving their individuality. They were something that experts could wield and turn into weapons, but they were mostly passive knowledge about a specific field.
Noah's understanding of his creation had increased while he built Snore's body. The laws of that path had fused with his dantian and were part of him now.
That improved his ability in his inscription methods even if he didn't deploy the laws to help him. It was as if he could suddenly understand and predict more when it came to creating.
Noah didn't use the laws to become better. The laws were part of him, so he was better.
The same went for his destruction. The battles fought in the last period, and his exchange with Ravaging Demon had improved his understanding of the laws relative to that part of him.
His abilities grew stronger because he knew how to destroy better. That improvement even increased the amount of primary energy created due to the influence of his individuality.
Abilities meant for destructive purposes came to his mind too. It was as if his mind had tuned with that aspect of his individuality and helped him find better ways to put it into use.
Also, his projects required the entirety of his individuality. Noah destroyed and created at the same time, and the relative laws helped him through an endless cycle of passive knowledge and enlightenment.
That was why his project with his school of attacks saw so many successes in such a short time. Noah was becoming able to create stronger abilities faster, which most cultivators in the liquid stage of the fifth rank couldn't even come close to do.
Of course, those advantages had drawbacks. Noah could fight stronger cultivators when he went all out, but his individuality also required more time to grow.
That affected his overall growth as a cultivator. Noah's improvements were by no means slow, but they weren't as monstrous as before. His individuality was too vast to resume his old standards.
Noah remained immersed in Shandal's memories until the group returned to the new continent. He gave the piece of glass back to the trio from the Odrea nation at that point and left with the Demons to sort the gains obtained in the negotiations.
The Empire had yet to give everything that it had promised, but the Hive should receive what it had established by the end of the week. After all, the most delicate matter concerned the Second Life formation. The others were just about transcribing old books and gathering many resources.
Since Noah had lost access to the formation even before he could decide upon that matter, he felt eager to see the pieces of information that the Empire had amassed thanks to its god.
Noah knew that there were a few rank 6 danger zones, but the sea's fauna remained unclear, and there were bound to be many valuable places hidden somewhere.
His expectation turned out to be on point when the detailed map of those Mortal Lands arrived through an orb that the Hive had chosen to communicate and exchange items.
Noah and the Demons could see how the Empire had described the danger zones of both landmasses in great detail. The focus mostly on the level and peculiarity of the creatures habiting them.
The same went for the sea. The danger zones there didn't have many fixed borders, but the Empire had used the hunting areas' width to make an educated guess.
The Empire had even listed the rank 6 magical beasts confirmed in the sea. There were seven of them scattered through the waters, with only the two Mosasaurus sharing the same hunting zone.
The map said that there could be other creatures on that level in the sea, but Shandal didn't bother to explore it in detail. Most of his knowledge came from casual strolls that he would make every time his boredom got the best of him.
The magical beasts weren't the only exciting aspect of the map. Those drawings described even many peculiar areas that Shandal found too low-level to investigate in-depth.
There were descriptions about the two danger zones that divided the old continent into three parts. It had vague comments in other areas like the valley previously habited by the Albino Snake and its pack. According to the map, Twilboia Cliff had a high density of "Breath" because a calamity had killed all the magical beasts.
That left a series of powerful corpses on the ground, which eventually fused with the rocky terrain there, creating an area with a high density of "Breath".
That land had lost its value due to the dimensional portal in the Utra nation, but the map had mentioned it nonetheless. The Hive could rely on that resource to look for possible sources of income that Shandal had ignored through the millennia.
Noah and the Demons' focus was on the sea since they had already seen the most secret place in the entirety of those Mortal Lands. There was nothing more hidden than Divine Architect's separate dimension, and they had already taken everything they could before its destruction.
The sea had a few areas with peculiar features, but they were always near the hunting areas of the creatures in the sixth rank. Only one of them was far away from any reported monster, but Shandal described it as a "tunnel that would probably bring more troubles than benefits".
It was needless to say that Noah's curiosity spiked when he learnt about that tunnel. However, he had to help the Hive with the Ravaging Demon sect before pursuing his desires.
The Hive was still waiting for the Council to answer their offer and create an alliance. After that, they would start a war against the new force that was trying to climb the political ladder.