Chapter 1457 1457 - Idea

Ian could finally explain how the battlefield worked after the chaos created by King Elbas and Divine Demon's face-off quieted down.

"This building is the core item to a massive formation," Ian explained to Noah and the others as he pointed toward the pagoda. "The forces of the human side know that they can't travel here separately, so they want to build a giant diagram to teleport entire cities in these regions."

King Elbas showed a surprised expression at that statement, and his reaction gave Noah an idea of how hard that task was. The Royal was the real expert in that field. The project of the human side had to be incredibly ambitious to leave him speechless.

"The humans need three pagodas to complete the formation," Ian said. "We managed to stop these troops before they went too far in the Outer Lands, but they won't be satisfied with only this region. They are too close to the edges of the human domains, so they won't gain much terrain if they remain here."

The political situation of the Immortal Lands was quite hopeless. The storms of chaotic laws surrounded the higher plane, limiting the territories that weaker divine existence could inhabit.

The Immortal Lands never stopped expanding, but the same went for the magical beasts. Those creatures continued to conquer territories and forced the human side to migrate after every invasion. The cultivators lacked space where to thrive, and they could only look at the Outer Lands to find new inhabitable areas.

The Outer Lands were vaster than the human domain, but their environment was harsher than the central territories. The storms were close there, so they weren't ideal in terms of habitability.

Still, as the Immortal Lands expanded, the storms would withdraw, creating new ideal areas that the cultivators couldn't wait to conquer. Those regions were one of the most precious resources in the higher plane since the magical beasts would take hundreds of thousands of years to reach them.

Any force with the power to defend their domain would want those regions. In theory, the magical beasts were their only real opponents, and conquering those lands would make them ignore that issue for a long time.

Yet, the Legion had grown tired of migrating every time the humans wanted more lands. Its leaders also felt that their organization had become strong enough to fend the cultivators off, so they decided to fight at that time.

"In short," Noah said. "We only need to destroy the pagoda."

"I wish it were so easy," Ian replied. "You can't feel it from here, but the pagoda is a rank 8 item. It has a barrier that can stop most attacks and many troops that protect it. Also, the building already works as a teleportation matrix, so the human side can send reinforcements whenever we kill too many of them."

The situation seemed hopeless. Only the rank 8 leaders of the Legion could destroy that item, but they were busy with the experts of the human organizations.

"What's your plan?" Noah asked.

"We keep killing them until they don't need these lands anymore," Ian explained. "We might be too few to stop their plans completely, but we can make them pay a hefty price."

Noah didn't know how to answer that. He understood that the Legion lacked the manpower to create a better strategy, but it wasn't trying to win with that approach.

Killing hundreds of rank 7 cultivators wouldn't stop the organizations from claiming those lands. The Legion would eventually lose those regions if the situation continued like that.

"I already told him that this strategy sucks," Divine Demon said when he noticed Noah's expression.

"The structure needs to accumulate a lot of energy to teleport another pagoda," Ian replied. "Then, these troops have to move it and repeat the process before they can start teleporting cities. Forcing them to send reinforcements consumes some energy, so we are slowing them down."

"You hope that one of your leaders wins and comes here to destroy the buildings," Divine Demon said. "How many rank 8 cultivators does the Legion even have? Can they win against the joint force of many organizations?"

Ian didn't answer, but his expression was enough to understand how he felt about the matter. Hybrids had steeper requirements compared to the other species. It was harder for them to reach the eighth rank, and their lower number didn't help in the matter.

It was only normal for the human side to have more rank 8 existences. Only a few organizations were joining that invasion, but they were enough to put the Legion in a tough spot.

"Will you join us?" Ian eventually asked as he turned toward Noah. "You need these lands as much as we do."

Many thoughts quickly ran inside Noah's mind. He didn't mind fighting pointless battles since he needed to polish his battle prowess, but a strange idea had started to take form after he understood the whole situation.

"Do all those troops belong to the Monneay family?" Noah asked after a short break.

"We believe they come from guilds that the Monneay family has hired for the task," Ian explained. "We have confirmed the involvement of two more large organizations in this invasion, but there should be more of them."

"How did you confirm this?" Noah asked as his eyes lit up.

"We have spies in the human domain and inside various forces," Ian explained. "We even know which guilds will join the invasion in the hope of becoming members of the large organizations."

A cold smile slowly appeared on Noah's face. His idea seemed more feasible than he had initially thought, and it could even bring better results than the current approach of the hybrids.

"What is it?" Ian asked when he saw that reaction. Don and Jordan also became interested when they sensed the coldness leaking out of Noah's figure.

"You know which organizations are fighting for these lands," Noah said. "You know which guilds they are hiring. You even have spies inside their domains. Why are you even fighting here?"

Ian didn't understand what Noah wanted to say, but Divine Demon exploded into a loud laugh and almost spilled wine from his cup at those words.

King Elbas shook his head and made a silent comment on how the Legion lacked proper tacticians. He had learnt to know Noah enough to understand what he had in mind.

"You have lived at the edges of the world for so long that you can't imagine yourself at its center anymore," Noah explained. "Stop playing a game that you can't win. You have the chance to ruin their plans properly. Seize it before they kick you out of your home."

"What chance?" Ian asked as a tinge of exasperation leaked into his voice. "What can we even do more than this?"

"You don't attack a dragon when it is high in the sky," Divine Demon said as he took a sip from his cup. "You hide into its home and wait for it to fall asleep."

"The invaders' focus is on this region," Noah explained. "They won't expect enemies at their doorsteps. Instead of slowing them down here, we can get rid of the problem at its source. Let's attack their homes."

Ian's eyes darted left and right as he considered that option, but a cold smile soon appeared on his face. The expert then raised his head toward the sky and gave voice to a thrilled howl.