The first battle on the old continent ended with a victory of the invading forces, but none of the higher-ups felt happy about it.
The Empire had managed to inflict decent losses due to the reckless charge of the slaves. Instead, the invaders had only gained territories that had been emptied of their resources already.
The Vostum was a good material, but the invading forces weren't interested in that body-nourishing technique since they had different types of societies. They didn't want every commoner to gain access to the cultivation journey.
The Council and the Elbas family had rendered cultivation techniques more accessible since the fall of the new continent, but they didn't want to imitate the Empire's approach. They wouldn't have a way to keep all those troops under their banners.
The citizens of the Empire had an unshakable faith in Shandal. There weren't oaths or deeds capable of matching such an intense feeling.
Also, having a divine entity wouldn't help the Council and the Elbas family either since those powerful beings would eventually leave the Mortal Lands. Not even Shandal wanted to remain in the lower plane. He was just forced to do so.
The human troops quickly built encampments in the new territories, and even the higher-ups decided to create a few caves. There were even rank 4 cultivators among them, and they felt the difference in the environment as soon as they started to cultivate.
For the natives of the new continent, the old one was simply a barren land. The possibility for those in the human ranks to walk freely and without the need for protection couldn't match the majestic sight of lands coming from a higher plane.
The ground didn't shine, and the air was thin. Their minds felt lighter in the old continent, but those territories lacked the breathtaking aura that filled every corner of the new landmass.
In the new continent, any habitable area was the best training zone in the world. In the old one, the "Breath" in the air was so scarce that the human cultivators found it challenging to refill their dantians now that they were all gathered in one region.
Of course, that was worse in the territories of the Empire. Still, the old continent had those issues when it came to training areas, which was the reason why Noah had valued the "Breath" blessings so much before the fall of the piece of Immortal Lands.
The ensuing battles unfolded similarly.
The Empire just threw hordes of slaves at the invading forces, and there was still no sign of a heroic cultivator on its end. It seemed that it was preparing something, but not even the Royals could guess what that was.
The problem was that the Empire had controlled those regions for millennia. There were too many secrets hidden under those exploited lands, and no external force had managed to investigate them properly before.
The threat of the god was too great, so only lone cultivators and experts with political missions had dared to venture inside the area of influence of the Empire. Even Noah had decided to avoid its core territories when he was only a rank 2 cultivator for the same reason.
However, he knew more than most since he had to explore those territories during his search for the remains of the Demon sects. He had never entered the countries meant only for the citizens of the Empire, but he had memorized the areas nearby.
In his mind, the Empire would probably keep using slaves until the invading forces reached its actual countries. In that way, it would only have to face tired troops while having access to the defensive measures in place.
That idea though didn't consider the heroic cultivators.
Noah knew that the Empire had slaves in the fourth rank, but he didn't know how willing it was to use them as cannon fodder. Even as slaves, they were still heroic assets.
Nevertheless, no clue came up in the ensuing battles either, and Noah and the others even began to consider the possibility that the powerful assets of the Empire had just left.
Yet, remaining in the old continent and using its accumulation of resources was still the most probable option, which was why the invading forces never stopped pressuring with their attacks.
All the higher-ups were waiting for heroic cultivators to appear on the other side. They knew that the victories and losses of the human armies were useful only to gain face with the other organizations. They didn't help in the overall situation of the war.
However, they failed to arrive even when the invaders were about to reach their domain.
Noah had already lost interest in those battles. He had been happy that his status had granted him a spot in the first line, but that was because he would have more chances to seize dantians in that way.
He didn't have any grudge with the Empire, and the only thing that interested him was its inventory since he was almost sure that it held techniques and spells of the darkness element.
As for the precious resources and eventual inscribed items with power in the sixth rank, Noah knew that they weren't there. Shandal would keep something so powerful in the separate dimension under the Odrea nation.
Fighting only for the sake of fighting was June's individuality. His depended on the situation, but it mostly required potential benefits to strive toward something.
So, Noah spent most of his time during a battle meditating and managing his headache.
A massive battle was raging on the ground, but Noah had his eyes closed as he sat cross-legged on the air. His focus was on a large and black orb radiating a faint pressure at the center of his sea of consciousness.
The insides of his mind had become less crowded. There weren't sphere-shaped runes on the walls anymore, and only the improved version of the saber-shaped rune remained.
There were also the Kesier runes, and Snore's ghostly figure coiled lazily next to them. Still, there was a large orb rotating right in front of them now.
The orb was the result of Noah's experiments with the training method for the mental sphere. It was a particular type of spherical rune that contained his higher energy and used his pride to alter the radiation that reached the walls of his mind.
Through his tests with the hybrids, Noah had managed to limit the intensity of the dark matter's radiations so that he could train all the time instead of taking away the orb whenever he needed a break.
However, his higher energy was incredibly heavy. His mind could endure it without taking breaks, but that left him with a constant headache that weighed on his head all the time.
Noah had tested and confirmed that his battle prowess wasn't affected by that rune, but the headache was still annoying, and it affected his mood.
A trace of hope appeared at some point. Noah sensed the arrival of a heroic cultivator on the battlefield and opened his eyes to recognize that Icy Cascade was flying behind the troops of the Empire.