Chapter 1186: 1186. Hidden

The Hive, Council, and Shandal Empire's assets settled inside the separate dimension after King Elbas defeated them.

The Royal had fallen into a trap after Noah and the other powerhouses retreated, but the sensors on the surface confirmed that he had survived the Instabilities' explosions.

The Hive had other traps prepared for future intrusions, but King Elbas didn't trigger any of them.

The Royal had won against the whole world, but he had suffered too many injuries in the process. He needed to recover, so he couldn't hunt down his enemies just yet.

His higher energy had suppressed his injuries, but King Elbas' condition was too poor. He couldn't risk triggering more traps until his wounds healed.

As a peak rank 6 cultivator, King Elbas would require more time to fix himself. Even his expertise in various inscription fields couldn't help him in that situation.

King Elbas had burned himself too much, and he had even obtained some enlightenments during the battle. Even if he still had enemies hidden in the separate dimension, his priority was reaching the higher plane.

The Hive had become used to managing the separate dimension since Noah and the others retrieved Thirty-seven. Chasing Demon had prepared that place to be his organization's last resort, so the Elders had an easy time adapting to their new lifestyle.

The separate dimension didn't have problems containing many experts, but that environment wasn't ideal for their training. The issue was even worse for heroic cultivators since they required the "Breath" inside the matter to improve.

The automaton and Chasing Demon had taken care of that issue long ago. They had relied on entrances that took "Breath" from the outside world and stored it inside the dimension.

The Hive had destroyed all the formations that led to the separate dimension when it gave up on the surface.

Yet, Thirty-seven and Flying Demon could build doors capable of seizing "Breath" from the outside world whenever the separate dimension began to show some instability.

Of course, King Elbas could notice those doors if he investigated the world thoroughly, but the Royal didn't cause any problems in the years following his victory.

He didn't even destroy the sensors that still filled the sky and the few intact spots on the surface. It was as if he had disappeared from the new continent.

Noah and the others didn't think that he had forgotten them. Their best guess was that King Elbas had secluded himself to treat his injuries and review the battle to push his power closer to the divine ranks.

Divine Architect had hidden the separate dimension from Heaven and Earth since it copied their work and went against their rule, but Thirty-seven had made sure to avoid that issue.

He had first set a formation that could hide the separate dimension, but he had eventually found a way to make that work without external inscriptions.

Heaven and Earth wanted to destroy Divine Architect's separate dimension because it tried to give birth to Mortal Lands and its potential was virtually limitless.

However, the Hive had always used it only as a method to surprise its enemies. Its separate dimension had never attempted to cover the entire plane, and it mostly was a series of tunnels that ended up in large halls.

Most assets didn't like to remain inside the separate dimension for years, but the situation didn't allow them to do otherwise.

King Elbas was virtually unbeatable, and most of the new continent was in ruins. Even if the dimension's insides didn't have a great density of "Breath", they were still better than the surface for now.

The three organizations maintained their separate political structure, but everyone knew that the Hive was the overlord of their new home.

The Hive had given them a place safe from King Elbas, and it didn't mind sharing it for a long time. Yet, it was the only force that knew how the dimension worked, so the Council and the Empire could only bow their heads in there.

The cultivators took a while to become used to the life inside the dimension. Nothing grew on its yellowish ground, and there was only darkness surrounding them. Yet, that was better than certain death or slavery, so they accepted that new lifestyle.

The Hive had stashed food able to last for centuries, and it had even created a small ecosystem that could provide a decent number of resources every year.

That wasn't enough to feed all the human cultivators in the dimension, but they had to survive with what they had.

The higher-ups of the Hive had to make harsh decisions to ensure the survival of the three organizations. They rationed the food and forced restrictions on the weaker population.

Human cultivators had to receive a permit to give birth. The separate dimension couldn't feed too many mouths, so the Hive had to make sure that the population didn't increase during their stay there.

The Hive prioritized the well-being of those that showed some talent in the cultivation journey. The others received less food and resources.

The Council and the Shandal Empire helped the Hive in enforcing those restrictions and rules. They even agreed to make the punishments harsher to improve their control.

The situation was far from the ideal, and the higher-ups' decisions provoked a widespread malcontent among the weaker cultivators. However, the leaders had to prioritize the survival of their forces as a whole, so they ignored those complaints.

After forty years spent inside the separate dimension, many of the sensors placed in the outside world went dark. That signaled that King Elbas had resumed his offensive, but the Hive didn't try to stop that.

All the sensors eventually went dark, and the three organizations found themselves completely isolated from the outside world.

King Elbas didn't stop there. He spent the following years destroying every door that the Hive used to refill the "Breath" inside the dimension. Yet, he soon had to give up on that task.

Flying Demon and the automaton could create new doors in a matter of hours. They could build many of them simultaneously and in opposite positions, so King Elbas never managed to destroy all of them.

The Royal tried to make his way inside the separate dimension from time to time. Yet, he always found rooms full of Instabilities waiting for him whenever he managed to get near the actual dimension.

He couldn't possibly know that, but he was against an automaton created by Divine Architect. His incredible expertise had found a worthy opponent.

The attacks quieted down on the sixtieth year of life inside the separate dimension, but the three organizations didn't dare to peek at the outside world even after King Elbas went utterly silent.

The leaders couldn't let a faint hope make them waste the years endured inside the dimension. They would start considering going out only after they obtained proof that King Elbas had left the plane.

King Elbas began to attack again after ten years of silence, but his offensive only lasted a few months at that time. His efforts only led him to find a series of traps anyway, so the Royal grew bored of that process quite soon.

The Royal attacked again ten years later, but his efforts lasted even less at that time. He went completely silent after only a week of attempts to break inside the separate dimension.

King Elbas followed that trend for a while. He attacked the separate dimension once every ten years until he eventually remained silent for more than half a century.

However, the leaders remained set on remaining hidden, and more years passed.