The Rise of the Black Plain

Gavin did not want to show himself. But since he had promised Minos that he would help protect this territory, he could only make himself available now.

With that, there was a risk that he would end up drawing Mortimer's attention to his presence in Dry City, which would undeniably make that man focus on those areas.

Mortimer had a technique to steal Gavin's third eye and implant it in himself. Since this was the core of a powerful variant bloodline, this procedure could even help him approach level 80!

Considering this, Gavin already knew that showing himself would attract the forces of that person, which would be a problem for him, who would have to die for that transplant to work.

On the other hand, this situation could happen because Minos was trying to end the conflict between the Saints Killing Sect and the Gray Clouds Sect. Thus, if that sovereign were successful, he would not only weaken the enemies of this red-haired fellow but also get support from the members of that organization to deal with Mortimer.

This scenario would be more or less similar to the current one, with the difference that the enemy would know where he was, but with 'controlled' risks. So even though he was unhappy, Gavin felt he could handle the situation and was there under Abby's command.

'Regardless of the outcome of the war Minos is fighting, we will continue to face the Saints Killing Sect until one of us is destroyed...' He thought while the people in the vicinity of the underground tunnel they were in were also quiet.

While Gavin was considering his situation and the future problem the Black Plain would face because of him, Abby was preparing her group.

"The enemies should have 100 to 200 people on their side, more than two-thirds of them high-level Spiritual Emperors, more than half of what's left, low-level Spiritual Saints. The rest should be mid-level Spiritual Saints, and maybe there are one or two high-level ones." She reminded her allies of this information the Black Plain Army had because of the recurring conflicts against such a terrorist group.

Everyone heard that, but no one despaired beyond the level of fear they really should have at this point.

The enemy group was stronger than theirs, even though they had the numbers in their favor. To get a sense, on the Black Plain group's side were more than 2,000 cultivators, all above level 60. But even with those numbers, their forces were at a distinct disadvantage.

After all, even if everything went right and they had the chance to eliminate the enemies, doing so was more complicated than it seemed. That is, a stronger enemy could escape the formation of the weaker ones and quickly kill several of them.

That was how one could defeat a large group of opponents.

Hence, the risks that these people would face were naturally high, and almost everyone there had a certain level of fear of what was about to happen.

But they were not desperate!

Some were like this because they had already become accustomed to being at a disadvantage against opponents due to the conflicts that Minos had led them into over the years. But others simply had confidence in their highest-level techniques.

Most of these people had good techniques, which were not so easy to have even outside the northern region.

That was because copies of techniques could be destroyed easily, and usually, the only ones who had the original scrolls were noble powers of this world. In other words, few had access to good-quality techniques.

On the other hand, few could afford to buy copies of techniques or find such things in enemies' spatial rings. And usually, they could not steal them because those who bought them typically had good powers on their side.

Since Spiritual Saints were as common in the Western Empire as Spiritual Kings in the northern region before Minos, few of these mercenaries, usually humble individuals, had good techniques.

They had no chance of even heard of people with Golden-grade techniques since even individuals like Harold rarely had more than one of them. As for those of Silver grade, those were possible to get, but most 8th-stage mercenaries would usually have one or two of them.

What was left were the Black-grade ones, the most common techniques in the Spiritual World that defined the fighting proficiency of cultivators throughout such a world.

The situation was so drastic that most people judged someone's strength by considering they had techniques of this quality. That is, when sensing the power of a cultivator, many would compare such an individual to someone using Black-grade techniques.

With that, Minos' forces, which relied on several individuals with Silver-grade techniques, had a bit of hope against the enemy mercenaries.

Given this reality, gleams of hope and will to win could be seen in the eyes of the people in Abby's group, even as she quoted what the army expected from their opponents.

...

In another part of the Black Plain Empire's capital area...

Gloria was with her group in another underground area as she talked about strategies and preparing for the conflict.

"Our group is one of the strongest. So it's our job to stop the opposing group's medium and high-level Spiritual Saints." She said as she looked at some of the people from the Spiritual Church that Vogel's post had sent as reinforcements.

The Spiritual Church post in the capital of Vogel had a very high enmity with Abe's terrorist group. So, as the enemy was not focusing so much on that area, that post sent people to support Dry City.

There were no mid-level Spiritual Saints in that group. Still, there were a few hundred peak Spiritual Emperors, people with similar techniques who used to train together.

They also had good techniques, so this group was even better than the Black Plain Army soldiers. Since there were Some Spiritual Saints there, it could be considered the strongest group left by Minos to deal with Abe.

"We will use our 7th technique together to disrupt the enemies, while the Spiritual Saints will try beside me to immobilize the stronger opponents." Gloria looked from one side of the place she was standing, considering the similar characteristics of her group's techniques.

There was a possibility of combining techniques to improve their effects. So people with affinities could use this as an alternative to strengthen themselves in team confrontations.

The Church had legions that specialized in identical techniques, so Gloria wisely wanted to use that as an advantage to destabilize enemies when they were attacked!

"OK!" Almost all the experts there agreed with her. Among them, Louise, level 70, a member of the Spiritual Church from the Vogel outpost that Minos had brought into Gloria's faction during his first time there.

This woman had grown over the years because of Minos' support. Thus, in this moment of need, she had come forward to support Dry City alongside other members of Gloria's faction.

With this, Minos' city was prepared to face Abe with representatives from each of this territory's allied powers.

And so, while everyone was preparing, Abe received the message he had been waiting for!

...