Noah and the others had created an excellent story to justify their divine items while preventing the other organizations from sending other teams in the Odrea country. They had revealed the existence of a separate dimension under the Mausoleum, and they had described it as an inheritance ground that tried to imitate the Immortal Lands.
Their story fit what the world knew about the god of the Empire and even explained why they had gained access to divine items when they were only rank 5 cultivators.
According to that lie, the group would have slowly explored that foreign land filled with dangers in the last five years. Yet, when they reached the rewards, they triggered a reaction in the separate dimension.
The inheritance ground detonated, and the void enveloped its entire space. It was only due to the group's careful approach that the cultivators had managed to return to the outside world in time while also seizing the divine items.
Of course, Noah and the others could invent that story only because Shandal's will was cooperating. They knew what would have been his reaction in the occasion of a raid, and they could use that information to fabricate a believable lie.
Even if the Elbas family and the Council were to explore the separate dimension in the future anyway, they would only confirm their story.
However, there were bound to be doubts, especially when it came to an inheritance ground storing divine items.
There didn't need to be glaring pieces of evidence about the group's lie to cause a reaction in the forces that didn't manage to obtain anything. One small discrepancy or ambiguous detail in their story was enough to make at least part of those organizations take action.
Greed could lead humans to destruction, but it was also one of their most intense urges in life, and Noah knew that far too well.
June and Faith had given vague reports to their organizations during their stay inside the separate dimension, and they had only revealed the entirety of their lie when they left it.
Those two mighty forces wouldn't have time to prepare much with such short notice, but they were still leading organizations in those Mortal Lands. They could come up with something fairly quickly, especially if they had begun to suspect something in those years.
As for why they would even start to suspect them, Noah knew that it was because of him.
There was a nation where only Noah could enter, and Elder Julia had prevented the other forces from matching the cultivators deployed by the Hive. The situation was already strange, and Noah's fame wasn't good to begin with.
His missions usually led to significant consequences in the political environment in the world, and his enemies knew that he didn't act unless he had a valuable reason.
Of course, they didn't think that June and Faith were involved in that possible ploy. The Council and the Elbas family knew that their relationship wasn't bad after the events in the neutral city, but it would take decades of friendship to convince them to try to trick their organizations.
Unluckily for them, Noah and June had spent a lot of time together, and Faith had become attached to them reasonably quickly. Also, there were oaths in place between the women and the Hive, which preserved their credibility.
Noah, June, Faith, Daniel, the two Ghostly Snakes, and the River Beaver came out of the underwater cave where they had first used the separate dimension to cross the formation around Odrea country.
Nothing had changed in those years, and the cave still had the curtain that blocked the investigation of eventual cultivators there. Yet, Noah didn't feel safe to see that no one had entered that place. That could be a strategy meant to make him lower his guard.
Noah's instincts as a lone cultivator made him consider every eventuality. There was a chance that he was being paranoid, but he was too used to the methods of the Elbas family not to expect something.
After all, the Royals and the Council knew that they would come out from that spot since June and Faith had warned them. Also, Noah couldn't request the help of the Hive because that would be suspicious.
No innocent man would ask for reinforcement when he didn't expect a battle.
Noah was trying to appear entirely in the right in that situation so that the Hive wouldn't endure the consequences of his actions.
The group came out of the cave slowly and with their consciousnesses wholly unfolded. The lack of any evident danger made them advance and exit the bottom of the old continent so that they could return to the surface.
As they tried to resurface though, spells materialized in the water around them and shot in their direction.
Noah felt surprised at that sight, but not because he didn't expect an ambush. What startled him was the trajectory of the attacks.
Generally speaking, his enemies would try to focus him because his power had always been unclear.
He usually became stronger after every mission, which made it hard to estimate his actual strength. That left the eventual assailants no choice but to take care of him first to make sure that their plan would work.
Yet, those spells were aiming for Daniel, and they were even trying to ignore June and Faith.
'Aiming for the weakest link?' Noah wondered as he released a roar. His pride spread from his figure and reached the three hybrids who felt compelled to execute his orders.
The two Snakes became immaterial, and the Beaver started to swim around the group to create a series of dense currents to protect them. The Demonic Sword also came out of Noah's robe and launched black slashes against the incoming attacks.
The ambush appeared quite threatening. Noah could recognize five spells with power in the gaseous stage of the fifth rank and one that matched the offensive of liquid stage cultivators!
There was a real expert among the attackers, but Noah hadn't been able to sense the incoming danger even with his innate awareness. It was needless to say that his mental waves weren't able to find the enemies either.
Two sharks made of water, a snakelike whip made of sand, two fiery spears, and a barrage of ice shards ran through the dark water to reach for the cultivators.
The world turned dark for a few instants as a wave of flames followed Noah's roar. His targets were the ice shards since they had the power in the liquid stage.
Nevertheless, he wasn't the only one who had reacted in time.
June was already creating crackling orange spheres that were spreading a barrier between them and the spells. Faith had taken control of the water around them, making it so dense that it separated from the rest of the sea. Daniel's light had followed the brief moment of darkness caused by Noah, and a white halo formed another layer of defense around the group.
All of them were ready to fight that foreseen threat.