Chasing Demon settled the matter of the Kesier species with Divine Elder Diana. The Council wouldn't own any Ape, but it could join the Hive in improving their grooming. Also, it would have claims over some of the Kesier runes produced.
Skully and the natives of the Vilot family handpicked a few hybrids to send toward the Divine Cut. They chose creatures with experience in martial arts. They even had to have humanoid bodies or be able to wield blades in their beast form.
Moreover, any Elder who felt curious about the sword arts in the divine aura or wanted to improve their overall prowess could visit the Council's territories. The alliance would then select who could train there again according to their talent in the field.
The Hive became restless right after the news of the new traces left by divine beings spread among the Elders. Many cultivators traveled toward the mountain chain, hoping that their past training or individualities could match the ancient aura.
That was a proper divine inheritance that didn't cause any lasting after-effects. No one would ever refrain from attempting to seize it.
However, most of them soon learnt the harsh truth. Abandoning martial arts after their centers of power had reached the fourth rank made them unsuitable for that inheritance. Their minds would take millennia to process that knowledge.
The hybrids had it a bit better, especially those from the six Bloodlines' inner circles. They had never needed to completely abandon martial arts since they were physically stronger than the main world's cultivators. Those lacking a dantian had even needed to rely on them since spells took too long to cast.
Skully traveled to the Cut too. Her appearance shook the Council's Elders to no end, but they ultimately felt glad to be the Hive's ally.
Those Mortal Lands were experiencing one of the wealthiest eras that a lower plane could ever see. Their sheer number of heroic experts was unheard of in the historical records.
Also, many cultivators were slowly reaching the peak of the fifth rank. Every organization expected more powerhouses to appear in the following years.
Many experts linked that rare phenomenon to the fall of the piece of Immortal Lands. Still, a few of them believed that the exceptional talents living in their era affected that trend.
In less than a millennium, the world had seen God's Right Hand's ascension, King Elba's dimensional portal, the fall of a new continent, wars of various width, and a crisis featuring a quasi-divine creature.
Those events had given birth to countless talents that either inspired others or created even more shocking scenes. The positive trend never stopped because of that, and more experts felt spurred to do better.
The hybrids remained for a few months over the Cut before many of them gave up on seizing the inheritance. Skully eventually abandoned the region too. Only a few weaker specimens remained there, and the Council prepared good accommodations for them.
As for Noah, he had become the main topic of many conversations in that period.
Noah almost couldn't help himself. The last session of meditation near the Cut had given him so many ideas that he had started another one right away.
Crowds of experts would reach the Cut and fail to last for more than a few days while he remained immersed in the divine aura for months. By the time his second training session ended, the Hive had already decided who was suitable for that type of procedure.
Noah saw an Elder of the Council handing him a bucket filled with crystalline water when he opened his eyes. His mind struggled under the effects of that refreshing liquid, but he noticed how the pagodas were almost empty when he managed to focus.
Many Elders had given up in that period. They had believed that hard work and constancy could eventually lead them to the bottom of the inheritance. Yet, that belief had vanished when they saw how long Noah could last.
Only a few stubborn experts and a small group of hybrids had remained in the area. No one else felt like wasting time near the fissure when there were existences better suited for that inheritance.
Hard work was pointless when Noah could absorb knowledge faster and for longer periods than anyone else. He could learn in days what other experts would take years to recreate in their minds.
It wasn't a matter of talent. Noah had never stopped using swords through the entirety of his cultivation journey, and that made him the perfect heir for that inheritance.
Noah didn't give much importance to those events. His mind could only focus on the forms contained inside the ancient aura now. He felt his expertise improving with each second spent in that meditation, and his body reached the peaks that he couldn't usually force during the process.
A war was about to start, and he had to improve as fast as he could before invading the Royal Academy. Noah didn't know how much time he had, but he preferred to spend it training next to the Cut since the dark star would push his body's abilities there.
Studying resources for years wouldn't give him the same immediate benefits as the Divine Cut. Improving his martial arts was even Noah's priority, so he found no reason to be elsewhere.
The Hive sent him weekly reports concerning June and King Elbas' situation. All the new continent's investigative structures focused their attention on the Royals' domain, waiting for the powerhouse to leave the surface.
The alliance knew that King Elbas expected the arrival of an attack after his departure. The powerhouse wouldn't lose his chance to capture a Kesier Ape in the seventh rank, but he wouldn't leave his domain unprotected.
The Hive and the Council had to wait until King Elbas felt ready to leave the surface, which meant that they had to let years pass while they prepared for their offensive too.
June did her best to kill her boredom. She entered the separate dimension and spent time with Thirty-seven. Her reward from Shandal's dimension was the perfect bribe to learn even more about formations.
A few years had to pass before the Elbas family showed some changes. They weren't anything flashy, and they didn't affect the weaker troops in the peripheral regions.
No one informed the weaker cultivators about events of that importance, so their behavior didn't change. However, the higher-ups of the Royals began to act slightly differently than usual.
Experts gradually came back from the other world, and the resources exchanged or bought in the various trades saw a change in their nature.
The masters of the alliance knew that the new resources exchanged with the Royals had the purpose of fueling defensive formations of protections of various kinds. The Elbas family had begun to prepare for the imminent battle, and it was trying to hide it.
The alliance waited a few more years and contacted Noah only when it felt sure that King Elbas had left the surface. The war was ready to start. He just had to make the first move.