Chapter 424 - 424. Plan
The first part of the elders' plan was simple: The human assets of the sect had to isolate the peripheral islands of the archipelago by destroying the teleportation matrixes on their surface and by defeating the forces belonging to the other organizations.
Without the matrixes, the only route available toward those islands would be the sea but that matter was left to the cultivators in the heroic ranks to handle.
After all, swimming was already prohibited, the other organizations could only ask for the help of the continent.
Yet, the continent was far away while the Chasing Demon sect had been abrupt with its attack, help wouldn't be able to arrive in time.
Nine islands fell on the hands of the Chasing Demon sect during the first day of battle, the organizations belonging to the Empire suffered heavy losses in the process as almost thirty rank 3 cultivators had been killed.
"Today we will target the peripheral islands controlled by the legal organizations of the Papral nation. They have deployed more troops after yesterday's attack so don't expect the battle to be as easy."
Noah spoke to his fellow captains in the residential area for rank 3 cultivators in the sect.
He was assigning the various tasks to each captain and forming the teams to send to each island.
Of course, most of those assignments had already been planned by the elders, there wasn't much decision making in his choices.
One thing he noticed though was that the captains had begun to look at him with strange gazes.
The news of his battle against the solid stage woman wasn't spread to the other organizations but the members of his sect had been informed about that rather quickly, it only took a day for the captains to be aware of his feat.
Some of them were still doubtful, matching a solid stage cultivator with gaseous "Breath" seemed completely impossible in their view.
Yet, they were starting to believe that Noah didn't retrieve the Inheritance out of luck, the young-looking man surrounded by a cold aura had some talent at least.
Of course, having talent and being willingly accepted as a leader were two different things, it would take time before Noah was able to thoroughly convince them that he was worthy of his title.
That, on the other hand, didn't bother Noah too much.
He had already decided to show his battle prowess in the fights, that was all he could do at the moment.
Also, he was one of the few captains that was aware of the reason behind their focus on the peripheral islands.
Those who had reached the seabed in the separate dimension had some suspects but only Noah was certain about their purpose: They had to empty those territories of enemy troops to prepare the archipelago for the copying technique!
The battle of the second day was far harsher.
Most of the peripheral islands of the archipelago were worthless, they were used as docks by the many rank 1 cultivators that worked as sailors or simple merchants.
Yet, there were a few of them which had valuables structures for each organization.
Noah was tasked once again to lead the biggest group in one of those important islands, thirty rank 3 cultivators and more than three hundred disciples in the second rank were with him that time.
The reason behind such a force was that the organizations in the other islands had become wary of any possible attack after the branches of the Empire were destroyed, they had gathered their troops on the islands with valuable structures, leaving completely defenseless the other useless ones.
Their target that day was a deposit where precious materials were stored, that organization of the Papral nation gathered the resources aimed for the wealthy markets, the deposit contained all the resources that had yet to be sorted out.
The defensive formation fell rather quickly, the Chasing Demon sect had its roots on the Papral nation after all, it was experienced about those kinds of formations.
However, Noah's group soon found about twenty cultivators in the third rank waiting for them, the number of solders in the second rank reached one hundred and fifty.
Noah once again charged toward the strongest in the enemy group, a cultivator in the solid stage with water aptitude fought him with everything he had but Noah's defense seemed impenetrable.
The Black hole spell protected him from any attack that he couldn't dodge or that was too powerful, allowing him to counterattack using the energy absorbed.
The Ethereal form spell saved him from any close-range attack, the cultivator's sword had never been able to touch his body for the entire duration of the battle.
Also, ethereal claws were constantly hidden inside his attacks, they slowly wounded the cultivator while Noah tried to force an opening in his defense.
The internal wounds of the cultivator began to acc.u.mulate and he didn't have a large variety of attacks methods, Noah's flying speed was enough to render most of his offensive useless.
Then, another series of Ghostly claws were hidden behind his Third Form, the surface of the water shield of the cultivator wavered as he spat a mouthful of blood, giving Noah enough time to near him.
A shockwave was sent by his eyes and landed on the mental sphere of the cultivator, the water shield completely collapsed at that point and Noah cut with his sabers toward him.
The cultivator managed to recover at the last second but he was weaker than the woman from the previous day, Noah's fuming slash managed to pierce the reformed water shield and land of the cultivator.
Its trajectory though was slightly affected by the man's spell, Noah's Third Form was only able to hit his elbow, cleanly severing his arm on that point.
The solid stage cultivator became furious at the sight of his severed arm being consumed by the black smoke exuded by Noah's attack, he was about to charge at Noah when three solid stage cultivators surrounded him.
Only then did he realize that the battle around him was over, his side had lost and he was the only survivor.
"Kill him, we don't need to investigate him."
Noah ordered and turned to leave, the curses of the man behind him reached his ears but he couldn't be bothered by them, his complete concentration was on his balance, he was so drained that he was barely able to walk!