Problems appeared even before that Noah could start experimenting.
Rank 4 magical beasts were powerful, Noah couldn't casually kill them as he did with those in the third rank.
It took a bit of thinking to find the method that would leave their bodies as intact as possible.
The Mental tremor spell was simply too strong now that Noah had a rank 4 sea of consciousness, his mind could affect the material world, the shockwave shot from his eyes would just reduce the beasts' brain into a pulp.
Noah had to find a subtler method to kill them, something that wouldn't waste that precious material.
In the end, he decided to use the Death area spell and the Ghostly claws spell.
Both spells had been empowered after Noah triumphed in the Earth Tribulation, those that once worked as supportive attacks now were threatening tools in Noah's hands.
The Death area would weaken the body of a beast to its utmost while the ethereal claws would attack the weak spots inside its body, all those small injuries would eventually cause the death of the creature due to its weakened state.
That process was long but left the body of the beast virtually intact, Noah didn't mind that effort as long as he obtained what he needed.
Then, there was an issue with the power of the magical beasts.
Noah was experimenting with rank 4 creatures, their bodies were far stronger than what he was used to even if they were only at the peak of the lower tier, he had to become used to that stronger material before he could express his mastery in the procedure.
A rank 4 mental sphere wasn't only a number though.
Noah wasted only two magical beasts before he felt confident in resuming forging hybrids, a request to refill those two missing spots was sent to the archipelago as soon as he decided to experiment again.
At last, what he had expected to happen, happened.
The fusion between a cultivator with a rank 4 body and a rank 4 magical beast failed since the very start, the skin of the slave rejected the external material as soon as it came in contact with it.
Also, when Noah tried to force the fusion, the skin of the cultivator would directly explode or self-destruct rather than allow the combination with a magical beast.
The will of Heaven and Earth was clearly against the birth of a hybrid, it would rather destroy the body in which it was contained than see it turn into an abomination.
Noah had wisely chosen to take it slowly because he had predicted such an event, that approach allowed him to stop the fusion in time and to save the slave from certain death, leaving it only in an injured state.
Yet, the problem remained and he could only keep testing to find a solution.
The two methods that he had hypothesized were only raw theories that would produce weaker hybrids, they would still be at least as strong as magical beasts but Noah didn't want to settle for that before he had tried everything, he was planning to create a nourishing method that would accompany him through the entirety of his cultivation journey after all.
Also, those methods increased the failure rate of the fusion, they weren't reliable solutions.
'It's an issue created by a will, it's obvious that only a will can solve it. Yet, this will only make the procedure harder to perform.'
Noah sighed as he looked at the chained woman that was resting to heal her injuries.
She was the first slave with a rank 4 body that Noah had chosen for his experiments, her skin and muscles had suffered a heavy damage due to the self-destructive mechanism of Heaven and Earth's will.
'If I completely remove the will with my consciousness, the laws that make her body function will stop working, meaning that she won't survive unless the fusion is completed.'
Noah continued to think.
His idea was to use a strong will to remove that inside the slave's body.
However, since a rank 4 body was mostly composed of "Breath" carrying Heaven and Earth's will, Noah would be actively affecting the laws inside the matter.
Without the laws dictating how the matter should work, the body would just fall apart, meaning that the part affected by Heaven and Earth's will would simply stop working.
'All these problems only because I have a rank 4 body, I guess there is nothing I can do about it.'
Noah cursed in his mind.
Fusing bodies in the fourth rank was simply too troublesome, there doesn't seem to be a way to make the procedure safe.
'Risking my life to become stronger, this doesn't seem to change no matter how my power grows.'
Ultimately, Noah gave up on searching for other solutions and focused on creating a will able to deal with Heaven and Earth.
His mind reviewed the events of his Earth Tribulation, Earth's gaze full of contempt appeared when he closed his eyes.
Then, Earth's face morphed, it transformed into Rhys appearance but the same gaze remained, Noah felt as if he was just an ant in their eyes.
Everything had started because he was so worthless that Heaven and Earth couldn't even bother to dismantle his soul, Rhys acted so freely because Noah wasn't even worthy of being considered.
The feeling of being just a puppet moved by strings that he couldn't break enveloped him, Noah felt powerless, it was as if something stronger than him affected his fate.
Yet, a bright fire burned inside him which allowed him to endure all those hardsh.i.p.s.
That fire represented his endless ambition which fueled many other emotions that ultimately made Noah's personality.
One of those emotions was his hatred.
Noah's hatred was a dark fire ready to burn everything that it touched, it was the sum of the emotions that he felt toward anyone that tried to control or manipulate him.
Inside his mental sphere, a figure rose from the sea.
The figure had Noah's aspect but it was black and its surface undulated as if it was made of fiery flames.
Also, a destructive aura was radiated by the figure, the mental energy that Noah had gathered for its creation carried only his most negative and destructive emotions.
The figure expressed Noah's hatred and it was his first will.