Chapter 1089: 1089. Peace

The alliance spent the following year dealing with the rebuilt golden shields. Second Prince didn't appear again, but First Princess and Third Prince changed their battle tactic often to slow down the invaders' advance.

Noah, Chasing Demon, and Great Elder Diana had to deal with a series of quasi-rank 6 disposable items that had the sole purpose of slowing them down.

They had to face a flock of hawk-like puppets capable of eating the energy inside spells before they detonated. They had to pave their way out of illusions that left them wandering inside Noah's cloud for days.

Once, they even had to deal with copies of themselves created after the defensive formations had gathered enough data about their individualities.

Still, the efforts of the Royals could only delay the inevitable. Every defense fell, and the enemy powerhouses relied on giant runes on top of the obelisks to teleport their assets away.

The Elbas family salvaged their assets in that way, but that wasn't necessarily positive since only three regions remained in its domain. The lack of losses left them overcrowded.

The higher-ups of the alliance held a political meeting after they conquered that land. They estimated the resources required to seize the remaining regions of the Elbas family, and the conclusions were disheartening.

The defenses were too tight, and the five Princes and Princesses would be more threatening now that they could focus all their efforts on fewer territories.

The alliance could even have to face all five of them simultaneously since the formations in the other lands were enough to stop any secret attack.

A slow siege was possible, but the eventual gains didn't make it worthy.

The invasion came to an end at that point. Both the Hive and the Council divided their gains and established a series of neutral territories that they could use as headquarters for their alliance.

They issued a series of smaller organizations meant to control and oversee the situation to prevent the appearance of rebellious groups. Still, those areas mainly served the purpose of increasing the friendly antagonism between the two factions.

Chasing Demon and Great Elder Diana began to cover those new lands with defenses while building habitable areas. It was only a matter of time before their organizations started to prosper there too.

The future for the human cultivators of both forces appeared brighter than ever. Only failures would have a lackl.u.s.ter growth with endless lands at their disposal and multiple adversaries to fight.

The situation for the heroic cultivators was a bit different. More lands meant more space for training areas, but the few losses and increasing amount of powerful assets accelerated the new continent's deterioration.

That was an inevitable occurrence. Heroic cultivators absorbed the "Breath" inside the matter to improve, and having more of them would lower the overall value of the new continent.

That wouldn't affect only their training. The resources in the heroic ranks would slowly become scarcer as the deterioration continued.

It was as if the world imposed a limit to the growth of the organizations. There could be only so many powerful cultivations around, and that world had delayed the issue only thanks to the piece of Immortal Lands.

The other world had helped in the matter too, but the number of heroic cultivators had continued to increase, making even those vast regions not enough to sustain all of them.

The deterioration had started right after the war against the Empire. As the organizations grew again, the world began to suffer.

Everyone knew about that issue, but no force was willing to restrain their growth to benefit the world. Every leader would rather start another war than suppress their power.

Noah didn't care about that matter. Ruining a world to push his cultivation level upward was a trade that every cultivator aiming for the sky had to make.

Those striving for godhood couldn't keep in mind the well-being of the ants. That was a ruthless mindset that every heroic cultivator had to accept sooner or later.

Without any opponents in sight nor war to fight, Noah could finally resume his long-awaited training. He had many projects to take care of, and the first one was obtaining the divine inheritance inside the Cut.

Now that he had revealed his relationship with June to the world, he could spend time with her without minding the political environment.

June and Noah spent a few months inside one of the new habitations built for them, but they soon restored a tight training schedule. The fact that they could express their love in the open didn't divert their minds from their real goals.

Their life became similar to their cohabitation inside Noah's mansion. June's training didn't have special requirements, so she could follow him wherever he went.

The Council built a tall tower near the Cut where those attempting to seize the divine inheritance could live. June and Noah could occupy the last floor of the structure due to their unique position.

Noah couldn't only focus on the Divine Cut. The time spent inside the ancient aura increased as his understanding improved. He had reached the point when each training session took him decades.

His centers of power would suffer if he left them to stagnate so often. Noah had to take long breaks where he immersed himself in traditional training and some side projects.

Faith, Daniel, and the Demons would visit them from time to time. They would even remain inside the tower for months whenever they felt the need to discuss their individuality.

They were the most promising assets of their organizations in the end. They shared similar ambitions, and their paths had met more than once.

Noah had united those different characters along his journey, and his influence had pushed their power forward. It wouldn't be wrong to say that many of their achievements had come after interacting with him.

Life was peaceful, and nothing could interrupt his cultivation. Without his hunger driving him in the wilderness often, Noah spent almost all his time between the tower and under Chasing Demons' quarters.

The Hive had placed the Seventh Kesier rune among the trapped magical beasts meant for the Copying Technique. That was the safest place in the entire organization, and the only spot deign of containing an actual divine item.

Years passed quietly, with no major event happening. The lack of struggles would usually hurt cultivators, but Noah had acc.u.mulated too many experiences to suffer from that situation.

The breakthroughs eventually arrived. Many assets had been near the peak of the fifth rank before the invasion, and those experiences had been enough to make their power cross the last step.

Elder Julia's dantian was the first to advance. The event surprised some of the higher-ups of the Hive since they expected Dreaming Demon to be the first. Still, many understood the reason behind that.

The Demons had lost a lot of time inside Divine Architect's separate dimension. Their cultivation level had reached those peaks due to their incredible talent, but they lacked the years of training needed for that breakthrough.

Those arrived anyway at some point. Dreaming Demon advanced to the sixth rank with both dantian and mind only sixty years after Elder Julia. The two women became the third and fourth powerhouses of the Hive in less than a century after the invasion.

Flying Demon had a harder time advancing. He had been at some distance from the absolute peak before the invasion, but the sight of his lover advancing pushed his centers of power forward.

Seeing Dreaming Demon moving away from him was the greatest drive that his individuality could feel. For a cultivator who had spent one thousand years keeping his lover alive, losing her was his biggest fear.

Two hundred years had to pass from the end of the invasion for Flying Demon to advance to the sixth rank. His breakthrough made the Hive match the forces of the Elbas family, but no new attack began because of that.

Breakthroughs happened on the Council's side too. Elder Regina advanced in the same period as Elder Julia, and others followed her example. Still, the Council didn't manage to match the numbers of the Hive.