The pack of turtles and the others left through the dimensional passage hovering in the sky. Noah remained alone in the swampy area, and the dark world shrunk to transform into fiendish armor.

The poisonous properties of the swamp grew stronger as Noah descended toward the surface. He could sense the presence of multiple lifeforms, but they remained hidden even when his aura spread to inspect the muddy ground.

The fumes released by the swamps were incredible. They seemed able to match the parasite's corrosive properties, and those effects were only stronger in the dark-green waters. Even Noah hesitated to dive into the swamp. His dark matter couldn't stop the poison completely, and replacing the infected parts of his higher energy would probably not work there.

Noah performed a few tests before giving up on the matter. He could dive into the swamp and limit the damage to superficial injuries, but he found no reason to do that. The lifeforms hidden in the dark-green waters were magical beasts, and he had better ways to deal with them.

"Come out," Noah growled, and his voice spread throughout the dimension.

Bubbles and tremors ran through the swamp and muddy ground. Something moved, but nothing came out. Noah didn't show any aggression, but the magical beasts under the surface still chose to remain hidden.

"Bring me your leader," Noah continued. "I have an offer I'd like to discuss with it."

The roar didn't produce any result. The swamp showed some reactions, but nothing came out. Noah didn't like that lack of respect, but the poison was really powerful, and he wanted to add it to his army.

"I'm going to split the ground if you keep ignoring me," Noah threatened as his blades appeared in his hands.

The Demonic Sword and the Cursed Sword released their auras and revealed their prowess. They had enough power to cut the whole dimension into two parts, and the magical beasts under the surface knew that. The high-pitched noises and dark-red shades radiated by the Cursed Sword even began to taint the swamp with Noah's destruction.

"Go away," A low whisper eventually came out of the dark-green waters and more quickly followed.

"Don't bother us,"

"Leave this place,"

"This is our swamp,"

"Our swamp,"

"Our lair,"

"Our kingdom,"

"Foreigners must die,"

"Invaders must die,"

"The swamp will defeat you."

Noah started to gain an idea of the magical beasts' nature from those whispers. Those creatures were using human words, but the tremors in their voices were impossible to miss. They tried to hide them, but Noah heard everything.

'How can they even be happy in a place like this?' Noah wondered as he tried to find the source of power in the area.

The swamp was different from the sea where Noah found the pack of turtles. It actually resembled Vesuvia's city due to its unclear power source. The Cursed Labyrinth seemed to fill it with enough fuel to sustain the creatures living underground, but they were unnaturally strong.

Vesuvia didn't reveal how she could build such a vast organization inside a separate reality, and Noah's confusion only intensified after inspecting the other dimensions. The rich population in each area would be enough to exhaust the energy of an upper tier item, but the Labyrinth seemed to do fine.

The matter was even stranger when Noah considered the sheer power of each population. Rank 9 cultivators didn't really need the energy in the environment to grow, but the situation was different with the magical beasts, especially in packs with upper tier specimens.

'Is the Labyrinth stealing energy from the higher plane?' Noah wondered as his inspection of the swamp continued.

It would make sense for the higher plane to be the power source. The Labyrinth had even shown its exceptional properties multiple times, so Noah could feel pretty confident in his guess. However, such thefts usually involved a connection with the outside world, and it was incredible that Heaven and Earth had yet to do anything about it.

A torrent of poisonous water suddenly shot out from under Noah and forced him to interrupt his inspection. The attack was slow, and he could sense the lack of aggression behind it, so dodging it wasn't an issue. Yet, the event showed how diffident the creatures in the area were.

"I don't want to fight you," Noah growled. "I only want to have a talk with your leader. You can't possibly be happy in this area."

"Our lair!"

"Our swamp!"

"Our kingdom!"

The whispers returned, and the resolve in those voices forced Noah to accept that those specimens didn't want to hear him at all. Still, that wasn't enough to make him give up on recruiting the pack.

Noah placed his swords on his forehead as his consciousness unfolded. His power flared for an instant, and countless cuts opened on the surface afterward.

The invisible slashes had only affected the superficial layers of the swamp. Noah had made sure not to touch the deeper area to avoid hurting the pack. However, the magical beasts didn't like his action anyway.

Strange screams came out of the swamp as multiple torrents of poisonous water flew toward Noah. The magical beasts had launched proper attacks now, but Duanlong left his figure and ate all of them.

Duanlong growled after the meal. The water couldn't affect its stomach, but it hated its taste anyway. Also, it was very likely that it would need to rely on its innate ability to absorb stronger attacks.

"You are getting annoying," Noah sighed as his potential started to flow into his centers of power.

Noah's level rose, and his aura transformed into a heavy pressure that expanded the damage on the swamp on its own. Dark matter amassed over his blades, and he didn't hesitate to swing them downward.

A giant slash left the blades and pierced the swamp. The attack destroyed everything on its path and absorbed the energy in its surroundings to grow stronger. Only the area's floor could stop it, but a hole still appeared in the muddy ground.

Rivers of poisonous water fell into the massive gorge and tried to fill it, but it was clear that the swamp couldn't go back to its original state so soon. A few strange heads also appeared among that poisonous liquid, and Noah sensed their angry stares converging on him.

"Are you ready to talk now?" Noah roared.

"We do not talk with foreigners,"

"Death to the invaders!"

"Death to the weakling!"

"Death to the fake dragon!"

Noah had already understood that those creatures had limited intellect. The isolated nature of the swamp had probably worsened that feature too. However, he didn't like that behavior and general disrespect. He didn't survive for entire millennia to get insulted by magical beasts.

"Fine, you die," Noah coldly declared as roots started to come out of his arm.

The parasite's aura intensified as flowers bloomed on the roots. It didn't take long before a rain of seeds fell from Noah's figure and started invading the giant gorge.

The parasite's branches grew quickly by feeding off the swamp. Angry screams and curses resounded among the poisonous waters as the magical beasts tried to fight the roots. Their destructive properties seemed to be equally matched, but Noah's power tilted the scales in his favor.

Moreover, the parasite didn't care about the damage that it suffered. Its branches expanded recklessly, destroying and absorbing everything on their path. Meanwhile, the magical beasts were trying to salvage the swamp during the battle, but their efforts were pointless.

"Kill the invader!" A louder, angrier scream suddenly came out of the swamp and made the whole pack turn its attention on Noah.

A series of torrents came out of the gorge and other damaged areas to converge on Noah. The strongest creature inside those attacks was in the middle tier, so he didn't bother to use his full power.

Noah tilted his blades, and a series of slashes came out of them. His attacks cut each torrent in half, killing the creatures inside them, but he spared the middle tier specimen.

The slash that flew toward that powerful creature severed the torrent horizontally and cut it away from the rest of its poisonous waters. Noah could shoot toward its tip, let go of the Demonic Sword, and seize the middle tier specimen with the clawed hands created by the fiendish armor.

The magical beast turned out to be a strange eel. Noah could see its eyes and internal organs, but its skin wasn't solid. A denser layer of the same poison that made the dark-green waters enveloped the creature and kept its insides still.

Needless to say, Noah felt the need to study that strange species, but the pack didn't give him time to lose himself in those thoughts. More attacks came out of the swamp, and the poison skin of the specimen in his grasp was starting to infect the crystals of dark matter covering his hand.

"Die invad-!" The middle tier specimen said, but Noah crushed its head before it could finish its line.. He had tried the peaceful approach, but it seemed that the swamp wanted war, and he wouldn't shy away from it.

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