Chapter 499: 499. Sparks

All three big nations found traces of divine entities which made one thing clear: It was worth investing resources to colonize the new continent!

Yet, that matter was troublesome and had to be handled carefully.

The new continent was filled with beings in the heroic ranks while creating cities or even simple living areas required periodic cleaning operations to control the population of the threats around them.

Also, the first operation would be the most difficult one since it would require a complete cleanse of certain areas, meaning facing the magical plants or beasts inhabiting it when they were at their strongest.

There were other matters to consider.

The new continent had once been part of the Immortal Lands, even the experts exploring it didn't know if the reproduction of the powerful beings inhabiting it would follow normal patterns.

There was the issue of the "Breath" in the environment too, cultivators at the peak of the human ranks were barely able to breathe there, it would be impossible to create footholds where the human assets of the nations of the continent could live unless something was done about it.

However, none of those issues would be solved unless the three big nations started to send enough heroic cultivators for the task.

The three big nations began to plan their next moves, even rank 5 cultivators were sent to better explore the new land and to assess how valuable those traces of divine beings were.

The gorge found by the Utra nation, the cut on the mountain chain found by the Papral nation, the stele found by the Shandal Empire, those three spots became the focus of the heroic assets of the rulers of the continent.

Soon, more traces left by divine beings were found as the exploration continued.

The Utra nation found a giant footprint on an area with muddy terrain, soft tremors were released by it which created some sort of defensive field around it.

It was soon hypothesized that a divine magical beast had walked on that terrain and left traces of its innate understanding of the earth element in that footprint, cultivators with the same aptitude were sent from the continent to meditate there and test if they could gain some enlightenment.

The Shandal Empire found a forest where shining fruits grew, their brilliance was able to momentarily improve the mental capabilities of the heroic cultivators that had found them, it was unclear how effective they would be once eaten.

The Papral nation found a stele similar to that found by the Empire, the signs on it concerned the water element again but it seemed that the divine being that had written them was focusing on a different aspect at that time.

Of course, all these events happened over time and took even more heroic cultivators away from the continent.

The nations that had started rebelling after the independence of the Coral archipelago could finally feel the pressure applied on them being slightly lifted.

That chance wasn't ignored by the Hive which was constantly looking for more manpower: The encampments on the continent had all been disbanded long ago but the matters concerning the new continent gave it the chance to gather troops again.

After all, the only way that an organization had to increase the power of its heroic assets was to nurture promising human cultivators.

The Hive had less than forty complete heroic cultivators in total, its power was extremely lacking in that aspect compared to the three big nations.

Yet, they had some sort of advantage.

Except for the Empire which had a central power able to control the entirety of its cultivators, the Utra nation and the Papral nation could only gain access to a percentage of the entirety of their heroic assets.

That was caused by their political system, the noble families held a large percentage of the heroic assets in the Utra nation and the same went for the sects in the Papral nation, the Royals and the Council couldn't deploy powerful cultivators as easily as the Empire, not without giving away part of their profits at least.

That inevitably led the Council and the Elbas family to give up to part of their control over their areas of influence to match the Empire in its exploration of the new continent, opening many paths were the Hive could infiltrate.

New encampments were created, the Hive decided to directly affect the nations under the control of the Utra nation and Papral nation that time without even trying to hide its operations that much.

Of course, the Hive could move so freely on the old continent because it was completely forsaking any claim on the new land, at least for the time being.

Like that, time passed.

The Hive continued to recruit human cultivators from the nations that sought freedom while the three big nations kept exploring and investing resources on the new land to find other leftovers of divine beings and to make some areas livable by their human assets.

Also, their heroic assets were making incredible gains there, many cultivators were enlightened or found the resources that they needed to continue in their respective experiments.

Simply speaking, the human assets of the Hive became stronger while the three big nations increased the power of their heroic ones.

The latter was obviously benefiting more but there wasn't much that the Hive could do, it could only wait until it was strong enough to claim a piece of the new land.

Every organization seemed to have entered a frenzied state and each one of them was managing to avoid useless battles, it was pointless to fight in front of such an abundance of resources, the war for the most resourceful territories would come after the entire continent had been explored.

Signs of trouble though appeared on island nineteen of the Coral archipelago.

Almost four years had passed since the piece of Immortal Lands had fallen in the Mortal ones.

The exploration and colonization of the new continent were continuing and its deepest parts had yet to be reached but some information began to leak outside of the three factions studying it.

The environment of the archipelago had also changed, more defenses had been built and even the structures on its poorest islands had been completely improved.

Also, its population had doubled since the war with the continent, cultivators filled the streets of the cities on each island.

Yet, a peculiar and scary event attracted the gazes of all the human and heroic cultivators of the archipelago.

Black clouds gathered in the air above island nineteen, thick sparks filled their surface which spanned for hundreds of meters, they obscured the entirety of the island with their shape.

The island that had suffered from a Heaven Tribulation just a few years ago saw the same event happening again.