The situation in the new continent had evolved in the short period in which Noah had left.
The forces of the Utra nation noticed the disappearance of the heroic cultivator from the Shosti family and managed to trace his space-ring, confirming the death of the noble.
The news further shook the foundations of the peaceful behavior of the three big nations in the new land, it seemed evident to them that one of those forces had begun attacking the others.
Yet, it must be said that each one of those powers had different ideas on the identity of the assailants.
The Papral nation believed that either the Empire or the Utra nation had struck first, it was aware that the Hive had carried the latest assassination, but it didn't know for sure who killed Elder Cheryl.
The Elbas family believed that the Empire was behind those attacks since it was the only nation that had yet to suffer any loss.
Also, the Empire was the only nation that had the power to fight both the Utra nation and Papral nation for the control of the new continent.
The Shandal Empire, instead, was clueless about the recent events, its heroic cultivators tried to set up meetings with the other two forces, but they were rejected every time, it was clear that it was the main suspect.
All in all, the political situation became tense, it seemed that even the slightest spark could ignite a war for the control of those territories.
There were even internal problems in the ranks of the Papral nation and the Utra nation.
The Council and the Elbas family had been forced to request for the help of the sects and noble families to match the exploration speed of the forces of the Empire.
Their forces were fragmented, they didn't follow the orders of the central powers that strictly, leading to the creation of small alliances that explored different areas on their own.
That behavior could be seen more often after the assassinations, distrust toward the Council and Elbas family was in the minds of the heroic cultivators coming from the sects and noble families.
The power of those two big nations became even more fragmented because of that, forcing the Council and the Royals to create a common enemy that could unite their ranks once again.
The only available enemy in the new continent was, of course, the Shandal Empire.
Meanwhile, the cultivators of the Hive waited for the right moment to act again.
They safely remained in the territories that they had discovered, either cultivating next to the lava lake or improving the defenses around the teleportation matrix.
The three big nations weren't aware of their presence there, not even the Papral nation could guess that they had already created a reasonably stable encampment.
Reports continuously arrived in Elder Austin's hands, the Papral nation respected its side of the deal by keeping the Hive informed about the political and geographical situation of the piece of Immortal Lands.
"They are going to tear each other apart, it should be a nice show."
Elder Jason spoke when Elder Austin informed the rest of the group about the current situation.
They were next to the lava lake, only Elder Duke, Elder Morgan, and Elder Laurel were absent, they had remained in the forest of White woods to handle the defenses around the formation.
"The issue is: Can we benefit from this situation? I know that we might manage to take a share of these lands, but I wonder if we could just inflict more damage to the three big nations."
Elder Hope spoke when she heard Jason's words, her thoughts matched Noah's for what concerned that situation.
Noah was there too.
He had been tasked to patrol the areas around the lava lake as soon as he returned to the new continent, and had gathered with his companions since Elder Austin was going to share the information obtained from the Papral nation.
He had gladly accepted his new task, that role allowed him to hunt freely and to keep acc.u.mulating the nourishments needed for the breakthrough, he was sure that it wouldn't take much for his transformation to occur.
'I wonder who will strike first, they should all envy some of the resources belonging to the others by now, four years of peace are too much for them.'
Noah thought as he prepared himself to return in the wild, there was nothing left to do there anyway.
"Prince, wait a moment."
Elder Austin called him before he could leave the lava lake.
Noah turned only to see that Elder Austin was handing him a simple space-ring.
Elder Austin's laugh answered his questioning gaze before he added a few words to explain that gesture.
"The death of the noble has put the Elbas family in a difficult position. Between the Cause growing stronger in the old continent and the distrust on this one, the Royals desperately need allies. The Patriarch has managed to exploit this situation to end the matter about your attempted assassination near Afria nation, he said that you would like it."
Noah's eyes lit up when he heard those words, he quickly took the ring and inspected its insides with his mental energy.
The ring contained only an old scroll, but Noah's eagerness to read its contents increased when he saw it.
Noah descended on the ground at some distance from the lava lake and found a safe spot where he could inspect the scroll, the contents of the ring were emptied as soon as he found it.
'To think that the Elbas family would actually help in solving the issue with my battle prowess.'
Noah thought when he realized that the scroll contained a rank 4 spell of the darkness element!
'Dark blast, it's a spell that acc.u.mulates a large amount of "Breath" and mental energy into a black form before launching it to destroy a wide area. The amount of energies acc.u.mulated will affect the power of the spell, meaning that I can even empty my centers of power to make it as destructive as possible. It should be useful.'
Noah read the spell before taking a look at its diagram, he was going to memorize it immediately!