The Rise of the Black Plain

After Minos and Abby's brief intimate moment, those two left the Spatial Kingdom, returning to that dark chamber from before.

The two of them still had the subject of that map in their minds, but soon after walking out of that secret tunnel from before, they came across King Snow and put that aside.

Seeing that there in the courtyard where the supposed statue of the God of Death previously stood were also Vivian, Grace, and Maxwell, Minos felt that it would not take much longer for them to leave.

"So? You found what?" Minos asked those people as he put his woman down.

And as Abby tidied up her slightly messy hair, perhaps giving those people the wrong idea, Maxwell stepped forward and began to speak. "Your Grace, Ma'am. My group has already counted the items collected from the corpses of those who lived here with the Spiritual Kings killed earlier."

"We have gathered 125 million low-grade crystals, a thousand low-level grade-2 artifacts, and 10 thousand grade-1 items."

"And besides the more than a thousand copies of Blue-grade techniques and 60 Black-grade ones, there was nothing else of value in those corpses."

"Oh? That's not bad..." Minos commented in a low voice.

Those numbers were indeed low by this sovereign's current standards. But since the wealth of this place was supposed to be in the rings of the Spiritual Kings and Spiritual Emperors, Minos knew that he had not yet known all the wealth left here.

Thus, he was not disappointed with what Maxwell's group had collected.

Grace then commented. "Your Grace, Ma'am. We have confirmed that no one has been left alive, much less are there any survivors fleeing from here."

"This place strangely had no alternative exits, as the entire underground of this place is frozen with an indestructible layer of ice."

'I see...' Minos pondered this fact, remembering that although there were no giant skeletons 'buried' in this place, there were sealed beings there.

The Endless Snow Mountain Range was a great seal, after all!

Such a thing was not a natural area but a territory manipulated by countless cultivators of the past, who had sweated to build a terrific seal to keep people away from the remnants of those beings.

Therefore, mere Spiritual Kings or even Spiritual Emperors could not dig escape tunnels in the middle of those mountains.

At most, they could build means of escape through the top, but those places were not interesting to escape from...

Therefore, the Scourges of the Devil met their end with no chance of escape!

After Vivian's girlfriend stopped talking, King Snow finally took a turn and spoke about something important. "We have found many things in this place, Your Grace."

"To start with the most important, we found a document with the names of all the allies of the Scourges of the Devil!"

"Oh?" Minos and Abby opened their mouths in surprise, pleased to have this information on their side.

The allies of the Scourges of the Devil were not necessarily their enemies. Still, neither were such individuals people who could be trusted to the point that they could ignore them. After all, such people or organizations related to these now-dead enemies of Minos usually had problematic characteristics.

For example, like the Chambers family, powers associated with the Scourges of the Devil usually used and exploited slavery and acted uncontrollably with the weakest, oppressing and acting ruthlessly.

But as Minos was already preparing to announce the new rules of the region, including the prohibition of slavery, he could not let such powers run wild!

As someone who valued the order of things and wanted his rules to be followed, Minos already had those organizations in his mind.

He knew they existed and needed to be controlled, but he did not have the information about who they were until this moment.

Because of this, after hearing Adam's old voice, he felt good, now with another way to bring order to his region.

"Very good." He nodded and looked at Abby, indicating for her to get the information from that man, "I'll let you lead this matter when we get back to Dry City."

"Hmm, fine." She smiled at him and then looked in Adam's direction. "King Snow, dispatch the list of those people and organizations involved with the Scourges of the Devil to the other regional royal families."

"I want each of them to investigate the organizations and people in their states and send their final reports to Dry City."

"I will give my orders regarding this problem when Minos and I return to Dry City."

"All right, Ma'am." That old fellow accepted that order from Abby without difficulty, thinking it fair that at least that queen was not so disrespectful to him to call him by his first name.

Adam then looked back at Minos and said. "Well, continuing about what my group found..."

They then proceeded to talk about this day's operation, having talked about some figures from the previous combat and other discoveries regarding the Scourges of the Devil. Like, for example, the curious fact that this organization had partnered with the Blood Triangle Pirates to help them find an item...

Because of this, Minos and Abby were very surprised as they both knew there was a good chance that such an item was the map Minos had taken from Darell Silva's spatial ring.

And considering how interested that group from the Evergreen Empire seemed to be in such an item, they could not help but conclude that such a thing must be worth a lot!

In any case, the Black Plain's groups chasing pirates and regional bandits were already looking for people who could confirm their doubts. So, this couple did not attach much importance to the matter at the moment, having just released that king's group to return from whence they came.

With that done, while they were still at the headquarters of the now-extinct Scourges of the Devil, Minos looked at Vivian and asked. "Are you all right? You got your revenge, but you almost died in the middle of the road..."

Hearing that, Vivian did not feel angry. Instead, she just showed a little embarrassment but a lot of gratitude for Abby. "I got carried away by my emotions when I managed to finish my opponent..."

"Hmm, sounds like you need to fight a lot more..." He commented in a low voice, not touching on the subject concerning what had happened to Maxwell.

Minos had saved this fellow, but the leader of the Black Plain was not going to say anything to him due to the smile Maxwell had just before what should have been his end.

Thinking about it, Minos could only remain silent, giving that man room to sort out his own feelings.

It was one thing Vivian's mistake which could easily be worked out and resolved. But Maxwell's lack of power and determination was entirely different.

This man had not failed at anything in that fight, only having been weaker than his opponent to the point that he had risked death. But other than that, he had fought to the best of his ability considering the five levels of difference between him and his opponent.

As such, just because Maxwell had shown little attachment to life, Minos did not think he had the right to criticize such a soldier or talk about it.

"Well, in any case, now that you have settled your feuds, there is no longer any reason for you to continue on our side." Minos smiled at that two as they finally left the interior of that great cave, arriving at the site of the great battle from earlier.

"Go back to the Black Plain and run to your duties. There is much that needs to be done in that place, and we have no time for delay on your part!"

"Yes, Your Grace!" Grace and Maxwell said loudly, quickly heading toward the Feathered Serpent that stood there.

Now that Minos and Abby would continue this journey alone, they would travel alongside Maida, King Stuart's official mount.

As for that Feathered Serpent, it had come there only to help this group travel faster, but it was not a mount of Minos, although it was honored to be ridden by him.

With that, those three people soon took off from that region, heading southwest.

As for Minos and Abby, this man used an array left by Henricus Longus in the Spatial Kingdom to seal the entrance to that mountain, closing off that place to curious onlookers.

After that, he and Abby departed that region on Maida's back while he counted his earnings regarding the rings of the many enemies killed earlier.

...