Noah read the reports sent by Roy and frowned.

The sh.i.p.s coming from the continent were numerous, the elders controlling the perimeter of the archipelago were able to spot more than fifty of them!

What was worse was that they weren't able to tell the exact force contained inside them, it was obvious that the continent had sent even heroic cultivators who were able to block the investigative methods of the elders.

'The heroic cultivators aren't my problem but there are fifty sh.i.p.s, I can expect more than two thousand cultivators to crash on our islands. Also, I can't ignore the cultivators from the legal organizations in the internal islands…'

Noah thought as he reviewed what he knew about the current situation.

Capturing the peripheral islands had been easy but managing to maintain control over them was hard, especially since the continent had decided to send real reinforcements.

The underground organizations were surrounded, they would have to defend two sides while the enemies just had to charge ahead, they were clearly in a disadvantageous position.

Generally speaking, the best course of action for a battle tactic would have been to capture the central islands and slowly expand, it would be impossible to isolate the underground organizations since they had way too many contacts in each island.

Yet, even that tactic would ultimately fail since the continent could simply overwhelm the archipelago with their higher numbers.

The Utra and Papral nation would find it harder to gather the necessary troops for the task because the threat of the Empire required for most of their power to remain inside the nation.

Also, their political system didn't allow them to acc.u.mulate that many a.s.sets, the powerful cultivators of both nations were divided between the many sects and n.o.ble families, the Royals and the Council couldn't force them to hand too many a.s.sets.

The Shandal Empire though was different.

The Empire was a constantly expanding nation that founded its economy on wars and slaves.

With a G.o.d in its lead, the Empire could gather all its soldiers under one banner and handle them as it wanted.

The reason why the Empire was the strongest force on the continent wasn't just because of the G.o.d but also due to its cohesive power.

'I wonder which methods do the other two nations have to deal with the G.o.d of the Empire, maybe the G.o.d has some kind of weakness due to its peculiar situation.'

Noah couldn't help but think about Divine Demon's words and the continent in its entirety.

He knew that if he was a divine being set on conquering the continent, he would just wreak havoc everywhere, uncaring of the level of his enemies.

Yet, cultivators rarely fought against those on a different rank, especially when considering human and heroic cultivators.

Unless there was some personal matter or someone directly offended them, heroic cultivators wouldn't care about the human world.

Their gazes were fixed on the sky, at the ranks above theirs, they didn't have time to waste minding the ants that human cultivators were in their eyes.

It was also a matter of face but the main reason why heroic cultivators or above let the human cultivators handle the human matters was that they represented the foundation of any organization!

Strong human a.s.sets would produce more cultivators in the heroic ranks who could eventually become G.o.ds.

The only way to forge human cultivators was through battles and struggles, they would never survive the Tribulations if they didn't have the right amount of determination and will.

Those reasons only worked for the organizations though, lone cultivators could act however they wanted and don't care about things like pride.

Noah was the Demon Prince of the Chasing Demon sect but, inside, he was still the lone cultivator that was ready to do anything to obtain more resources, he didn't blink at the thought of using an elder to deal with the criminals from the Utra nation after all.

A message arrived through his inscribed notebook, it explained the plan created by the elders for the incoming invasion.

According to their words, the copying technique had been almost completely set up, Noah only needed to maintain control over the islands and the battle would eventually be won.

What made him heave a sigh of relief was that the plan involved all the underground organizations of the archipelago, it seemed that some kind of agreement had been made between the various branches of the Hive.

A united front was stronger than many spa.r.s.e ones, the Hive was finally fighting together against the forces of the continent!

Noah didn't waste time, he had his orders and the sh.i.p.s were nearing the sh.o.r.es, many preparations had to be made.

The pages of his inscribed notebook turned continuously, Noah sent a series of mental messages as he exited his training area.

The plan of the elders involved formations, traps, and even the usage of many rank 1 cultivators as cannon fodder.

All of that had to be set in one week!

Noah sent orders to anyone involved with the plan and began to help with the preparations, the peripheral islands seemed to burst with life as all the organizations occupying them began to work on the defenses for the incoming attack.

Noah willingly began to forge new Instabilities and Hidden blasts to add on the traps, he worked at close contact with Kate to set as many explosive formations as possible.

Kate was the leader of the faction handling the teleportation matrixes, she was immediately able to modify some of the defensive formations she knew to work together with Noah's disposable weapons.

The week pa.s.sed quickly.

On the morning of the eighth day, an eerie silence filled the purple sh.o.r.es of the peripheral islands.

Many sh.i.p.s could be seen docking on them, the fleet divided itself into three groups, each of them representing a big nation.

These three groups of sh.i.p.s neared three different valuable islands, they would leave the less important ones to the forces of the legal organization.

Then, groups of cultivators of various strength jumped off the sh.i.p.s, landing on the sh.o.r.es illuminated by the purple light.

The invaders were wary of their surroundings, the fact that they couldn't see anyone in sight was the clear sign that there was a trap somewhere.

As if answering their thoughts, s.h.i.+ning lines appeared on the sandy terrain as soon as the troops took the first step, they were unable to react since an explosion immediately followed the activation of the formation, engulfing them with a series of fuming spikes.