Chapter 1257 1257. Clearing operation

The second phase of the project wasn't as troublesome as the first, but Noah had to approach it slowly because a failure would ruin a whole gland.

Still, his many successful hunts gave him a large number of core materials. Noah could take more risks and fix every flaw instead of focusing on creating a product that his dark matter had to improve.

The world barely noticed the death of those Eternal Snakes. Noah had hunted only scattered packs in peripheral areas, so the landmasses' situation didn't change in the slightest.

The same went for the sea. Noah didn't have the time to search for the remains of the previous fauna. The vast dark depths hid some creatures that had survived the invasion, but he had no interest in them.

The net of cracks had continued to expand in that period. Noah's hunts couldn't help the world's condition just yet, but he didn't feel anxious.

He didn't know how many rank 6 creatures he had to kill before the world could start to heal, but he had no reason to hurry. Each hunt slowed down the cracks' expansion, and the Eternal Snakes helped in the matter.

The invasion had destroyed the previous fauna, which left the Eternal Snakes without any food. They could only resort to cannibalism to appease their hunger, and that helped the world.

It would be a problem if more Snakes were to reach the upper tier or the quasi-rank 7 stage, but magical beasts needed a massive amount of energy for each breakthrough. They even had to survive long periods of hibernation.

Five hundred years wouldn't be enough to complete those breakthroughs. A few peak lower tier Snakes could reach the middle tier, but they weren't an issue for the world.

Still, the world's structure would suffer if too many battles were to happen at the same time, especially if they involved powerful creatures.

Noah knew that he couldn't approach the strongest specimens until he relieved the world of some pressure. It was safer to clear the entire sea before moving his focus on the landmasses.

He even planned to leave a few corpses in the sea of magma. The Eternal Snakes would find it hard to reach them there, so the bodies release their "Breath" in the environment rather than passing most of it to other creatures.

Noah completed the second stage of the testing phase in five years. He had taken his time to remove any instability, and the final product ended up surpassing his initial prediction.

Noah had planned to rely on his dark matter when there were only nine Eternal Snakes in the world. His project saw a relatively stable organ as core material.

Instead, he could now create perfectly stable and improved glands since he had gained access to multiple Eternal Snakes. The project could enter its final phase now. Noah only had to clear all the areas that wouldn't cause harsh battles before approaching the actual fusion.

Noah's kill count had reached twenty-two specimens after his various travels to gather materials. Still, only two of them were in the upper tier. The creatures in the lower tier were always more numerous.

Of the twenty-two corpses, Noah decided to keep only twelve of them. The creatures in the middle tier and above were useful for his body, and the Demonic Sword didn't mind eating some of the weaker ones. As for the others, Noah threw them in the red sea to disperse their energy in the world.

It would take a while for the magma to disperse all the "Breath" they contained, but Noah couldn't do any better. He had even tried to hide them from the fauna down there. He could only be more thorough once he fixed the main issue.

A lower plane would typically have ten to fifteen existences in the sixth rank at best. That number changed according to the species and actual power of those beings, but that was enough to give Noah a vague idea of how many Snakes he had to kill.

His world was also different due to the fall of the piece of Immortal Lands. That lower plane could contain far more powerful existences than average because of the energy that the new continent had brought to the environment.

The planes could also stretch those limits by redirecting part of their energy to suppress the internal pressure, but Noah's world was too damaged. He guessed that meeting the standards calculated in normal conditions wouldn't be enough for his situation.

Noah had completed the testing phase, and he had disposed of the corpses that he didn't need. He needed a peak rank 6 specimen to complete his project, and that required some preparation.

The nine peak rank 6 creatures all lived on the landmasses and had large packs under their control. Some even shared a few regions peacefully, making their overall power too much for Noah to handle.

Some of those peak rank 6 Snakes also worked as underlings of the quasi-rank 7 specimen, making entire areas of the new continent unapproachable. Noah had to rely on his experience as a hunter if he wanted to safely face those magical beasts.

Noah didn't waste time. He had to clear the sea first, and he didn't hesitate to begin his long match across the seabed.

The third wave of invaders had brought the number of rank 6 specimens in the world above one hundred, but almost forty of them lived in the sea. Noah had already killed twenty-two of them, so he only had to complete that part of his worldwide clearing operation.

The Eternal Snakes living in the sea couldn't do anything against Noah. Their innate abilities couldn't do anything against his destructive might.

Snore's dark beam was a deadly weapon that they couldn't block even after piling countless layers of ice. The wounds that it inflicted also made it impossible for the shards to fix them properly.

Night was a constant threat. It could appear out of nowhere and inflict precise wounds that could reach even their bones. Still, it rarely needed to make an appearance in that phase of the hunt.

Noah was relentless. His desire to complete his project made him hungry for more battles. His Demonic Sword also never failed to pierce the Snake's defenses, and his spells could help him ending the hunts more quickly.

Finding and killing all the specimens in the sea took a while. That environment was too vast even for an existence like Noah. Still, his innate awareness always allowed him to find traces of his targets.

Noah killed twenty rank 6 specimens in the years that followed the beginning of his clearing operation. That number increased whenever one of the Eternal Snakes living on the landmass decided to migrate.

The world didn't reward his efforts. The net of cracks continued to expand even after he had taken care of so many powerful creatures, but Noah didn't mind that.

The new valuable corpses allowed him to improve both his body and his Demonic Sword, while the weaker ones ended up in the red sea where the magma took care of giving "Breath" back to the world.

Only the Eternal Snakes in the human ranks that had appeared after the environment's modifications continued to occupy the sea. The other creatures in hiding were still too scared of the invaders to come out in the open.

Noah didn't relax after clearing the sea. Those battles were nothing more than hunts devoid of any danger, but he was about to approach a battlefield that could cause him some trouble. It was finally time to attack the landmasses and complete his project.

*****

Author's notes: I'm quite busy today, but I should manage to prepare the chapters for tomorrow. Still, I will just complete them tomorrow morning if I fail tonight. Don't panic if you see fewer chapters. I will always fill my daily quota.

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