Chapter 1169: 1169. Negotiations

Noah neared the corner of the southeastern coast slowly, but his instincts soon reassured him. He didn't feel any fear when landing on that prairie. The region appeared harmless.

The magical beasts living there maintained their unusual behavior even after King Elbas had disappeared for years. Still, Noah didn't sense the effects of formations when he neared the entrance of the palace at the center of the region.

There was something active underground, but it didn't seem aimed at Noah. King Elbas had created training areas, but he didn't waste time building defensive formations.

Noah felt some danger when entering the palace. The inscriptions there applied pressure on his mental sphere. Yet, they didn't aim at him.

They expressed part of King Elbas' might, but their purpose wasn't to protect the area. Noah guessed that they gathered energy to fuel the training areas underground.

Of course, there was a chance that many defenses had become inactive after they spent many years without their creator.

Noah didn't care about the specifics of that region. His target was somewhere inside the palace, and he felt free to enter it when his instincts didn't sense anything.

The palace's insides were as luxurious as Noah had recalled, but he didn't spend time investigating every room that he found. Many areas contained valuable resources, but they had barriers dividing them from the rest of the structure.

Noah could break those barriers if he decided to invest time and resources in the effort, but his target was elsewhere. He had felt it since he had entered the palace. He had to go underground to find it.

The palace had many corridors, but Noah only needed to listen to his instincts to find his target. He walked past many halls radiating a breathtaking aura and descended stairs with multiple branches until he reached a large room.

There were barriers there too. It seemed that King Elbas had deployed defenses only when he had to protect specific resources, and one of them could be vital to the alliance.

Noah arrived in front of a small door that had multiple shining lines on its edges. A peak solid stage aura covered those walls, but he didn't need to think of a way to break them just yet.

He kept his eyes fixed on the quasi-rank 7 magical beast restrained by a golden sphere inside the room. His best hope to stop King Elbas was in a creature that loathed humanity with every fiber of its body.

The Ape God appeared to be sleeping when Noah arrived, but the sole trace of his aura made it react. The creature didn't speak human words when it noticed its guest. Its anger took control of its functions and made it unleash a violent offensive against the golden barrier.

Noah noticed how the chains didn't appear no matter how much the Ape struggled to break free. He couldn't help but rejoice to see that King Elbas' influence had waned after they banished him in that different dimension.

"I've come to talk," Noah said while the Ape screamed and threw punches at the barrier.

The creature didn't stop its offensive at his words, but Noah had predicted that reaction. He didn't show any surprise as he sat in front of the room to wait for the beast to calm down.

The Ape God's stamina was immense. It raged against the barrier for two entire weeks before it grew bored of that struggle. Noah had studied the creature in that period. The Ape appeared stronger than before, but it was still far from returning to its previous peak.

King Elbas' absence had slowed down its recovery, and Noah could only feel glad about that. The fact that the Ape was still near the heroic ranks made it too weak to break the barrier and gave him the chance to seal a pact.

The Ape God snorted after it stopped its offensive and lay down inside its barrier while showing its back to Noah. It didn't want to talk to him, and even the sight of his figure caused waves of anger inside its mind.

However, Noah needed it, so he made the first move.

"I can give you freedom," Noah said. "I can give you the chance to take your vengeance against the cultivator that has captured you."

The Ape didn't answer, but Noah didn't give up. He knew what the creature thought about humans, and he was aware of its mindset's weaknesses.

"My organization is treating your kind quite nicely," Noah continued. "The Kesier Apes under our control are growing well. I suspect that we will have some rank 6 specimens in a few more centuries."

A tremor ran through the Ape God, but it didn't turn. The creature did its best not to fall for Noah's tempting words.

"You know," Noah pressed on, "I agree. Humans are lucky. They are born with three centers of power, but many of them don't deserve it. I've seen far too many cultivators wasting their innate gifts. This doesn't happen in the magical beasts' world."

The aura of the Ape God surged at those words, but Noah knew that the barrier would stop any attack. King Elbas' restrictions worked in his favor now that he wasn't attempting to break them.

"I don't know if you are aware of this," Noah continued his monologue, "But humans envy magical beasts. Your bodies and innate gifts are incredible. Every cultivator wishes to have such an easy path toward the higher ranks."

Noah taunted the Ape with his last line, and the creature couldn't ignore him anymore at that point. It stood up and turned to stare at him while unleashing a wave of violent mental waves that crashed on the golden barrier.

"This is the same reason why I fused with a magical beast," Noah said while making up for his previous words. "I wanted your strength and training method, so I accepted every aspect of your kind."

The Ape God didn't want to listen to him, but its situation had never been lower. It had lost its pack, the hidden world, and its freedom in a few centuries. Everything that it had built had crumbled, but Noah was there to give it hope.

As for what kind of hope, the Ape didn't know. Yet, that was better than spending decades without food and freedom. Listening to the man who had destroyed its world was better than nothing.

"You have ruined me," The Ape God said. "My pack, my power, you have destroyed everything out of your greed. You are no different from the golden human. You can only see resources when you look at my species."

"Is that bad?" Noah replied while shrugging his shoulders. "We do what we can to reach the sky. You would do the same if you were in our position. Don't look down on humans only because you can't be like them."

Noah's words caused a violent reaction in the beast, but he waited for the creature to calm down. It took the Ape God another week to stop its assault on the golden sphere and accept that idea.

The Ape God had never discussed matters related to species with a human, and Noah was quite peculiar even at that. He could understand the vision of both cultivators and magical beasts, so his words always hit the right topic.

"You didn't oppose the sacrifice of your companions," Noah said, and his words reopened the Ape God's old scars. "You let them die to reach the divine ranks. You are no different from humans hunting down a species for their benefits."