Birth of the Demonic Sword

After learning about the Immortal Lands' layout, obtaining a vague understanding of their political divisions, and studying how to advance through the divine ranks, Noah could focus on his path ahead.

A peculiar aspect of the Immortal Lands was that most of their population didn't come from a lower plane. Most newly ascended existence struggled to survive the change of environment, and the rank 7 Heaven Tribulation was a difficult hurdle to overcome in the Mortal Lands.

Instead, the natives of the higher plane could rely on their backing and powerful divine tools to overcome that hurdle. Becoming a god in the Immortal Lands wasn't hard. It was a simple matter of resources.

The Soul Stones that Noah had obtained by selling his Instabilities were the reason behind that feature. That currency contained raw laws that cultivators could absorb to improve, so anyone could hope to reach the seventh rank as long as they had money.

That made the mines of Soul Stones quite valuable for the population of the Immortal Lands. Most of those locations belonged to important families, and Noah could memorize them as he studied inside the library.

Those locations became off-limits once a powerful family occupied them, but even those organizations couldn't control all of them. New mines of Soul Stones would appear every decade, and many explorers lived to find them.

Noah read about mining guilds and famous explorers who had managed to find those locations and seize them before the arrival of powerful organizations. The library couldn't offer him detailed reports about those mines, but it taught him why they formed.

Mines of Soul Stones would often appear after large battles occurred. The Immortal Lands would reabsorb the corpses of divine existences and generate those locations after a set amount of time.

Even the death of many rank 7 magical beasts could create those locations. The Soul Stones had a chance of forming as long as a massive amount of energy flowed back into the ground.

Noah didn't care about those mines for now, but studying them led him toward the type of knowledge he desired.

The Immortal Lands had witnessed countless experts rise and fall. An endless number of battles had happened on their surface and sky. Soul Stones' mines had been the reason behind some fights, but they weren't the only resource that divine cultivators sought.

Every existence strived to reach the higher ranks. Magical beasts could eat anything containing energy to improve, but cultivators and hybrids needed more than that.

However, gaining access to resources that could make them improve wasn't easy. Obtaining mines of Soul Stones required luck and long years of research, and the same went for unique resources that could benefit their training.

Still, specific locations could contain far more than simple resources, and it was hard to keep them a secret from the population of the Immortal Lands. Powerful organizations would try to hide them, but they always became famous if those forces failed to seize them quickly.

'How many inheritances the higher plane even has?!' Noah exclaimed in his mind when he read the reports about those locations.

Due to the presence of countless divine experts, the Immortal Lands had a large number of inheritances. The library had recorded thousands of them, and only a few of them had found worthy heirs.

Most inheritances still lacked an owner, and some were so hard to seize that the organizations controlling those areas had turned them into a popular attraction for hopeful cultivators.

The most famous known inheritance was the Land of the Fallen. Its location bordered the magical beasts' side, and its story was a legend that every cultivator had heard.

The peace between the humans and the magical beasts was only a temporary phase reached after countless battles. Those sides were unable to live together, so the clashes always resumed at some point.

Many famous wars had happened on the borders between the two sides, and the humans had often lost them. The endless tide of magical beasts was something that they couldn't restrain for too long. The "Breath" suited those creatures too much.

That led to a constant shrinking of the territories of the human sides. Many powerful organizations would band together to fend off the magical beasts every time the peace crumbled, but their efforts could only delay the inevitable.

The magical beasts' side was too powerful, and it hid dangers that the human forces didn't want to awaken. Even mighty rank 8 cultivators would limit themselves to reconquer only a few regions when they had the chance. They didn't want to anger the living calamities in the depths of the creatures' domain.

Many powerful existences had died on the borders between the two sides. Those regions were rich, and the death of so many cultivators had given birth to a peculiar phenomenon after countless years of war.

Divine cultivators weren't just a mass of energy. They had powerful seas of consciousness that could affect the laws of the world. Upon their death, their mental waves could alter the environment and give birth to improvised inheritances that respected their last wishes.

'To this day,' Noah read through the reports, 'The many powerful forces of the human side have confirmed the presence of two hundred and thirty-seven inheritances on the border with the magical beasts' domain.'

Learning about that sheer number of inheritances almost made Noah go crazy. His greed threatened to leak out of his figure, but he promptly suppressed it to continue his study.

'This number only considers the inheritances near the human domain,' Noah read. 'Regions that have seen even bigger wars are now deep into the magical beasts' domain, which makes them hard to seize. The library has recorded those great battles' locations, but it doesn't have more details.'

Noah put down the book in his hands after he read that part. Sword Saint's inheritance had taught him about the presence of those places in the Immortal Lands, but he didn't believe that there could be so many of them.

Famous organizations also controlled some of those inheritances. Noah read about names that he had heard during his short stay in Vagona city. Every force with a rank 8 existence in its ranks controlled at least one of them.

'The last wishes of dying cultivators are so powerful,' Noah thought as greed built inside his mind. 'Wonderful!'

Noah found it hard to contain his excitement. Differently from the other cultivators, he didn't have to limit his exploration to the human domain. He didn't care if his actions broke the peace between the two sides, and his species made him perfect for that task.

Noah called the waiter and paid him again to search every piece of information related to the Land of the Fallen. He even purchased reports and books stored on the higher floors of the library.

His slim finances became slimmer, but Noah didn't even bother to keep track of them as he studied those reports. It wasn't a problem for him to generate money if he had enough materials, and he couldn't think of a better way to spend it anyway.

Three months quickly passed while he amassed knowledge about the Land of the Fallen. Noah left the library after that period ended, and he didn't even glance at Chief Ash as he exited the structure.

Noah finally had a target, and nothing could distract him from it.