The Rise of the Black Plain

"Yes, I fought." Minos walked around the surroundings as he observed the decorations of this royal palace. "I realized that I had reached a good level to test the defenses of my state with a surprise military exercise. So I fought with the elders in that city and saw how troublesome it will be to solve the local problems..."

"The way they are, they have no capabilities to stop a high-level Spiritual Saint capable of fighting large numbers of opponents." He said as the people there interpreted this as him exposing his current level of power, in a sense, threatening them without saying the proper words.

'Are you saying that if we stand against you, we won't have anything to do either?' One of the elders there considered, feeling a little bad about the situation.

Luckily, the royal family was determined to side with Minos and leave those Vogel powers to their own luck.

With that, at least they would not have to worry about suffering the same as those Vogel powers!

"So that's it?" The queen asked. "Vassals are a problem. We have to train them hard, or they get soft and become like that... Sigh, you are right in your intentions, Your Majesty."

The other people in the surrounding area nodded while Minos continued with his neutral expression, pleased that these allies would continue on his side. "Hmm, it's good that you people understand me. Anyway, with the changes that will happen in Vogel soon, I hope to improve the Empire and Rosser's negotiations with the cooperation of the Assembly."

"I think the same way." The queen said, figuring that she could benefit from negotiating Vogel resources directly with Dry City.

Then, they talked more in another area of the royal palace, negotiating some issues relevant to their states and even specific resources.

But at no time did the people in the queen's group attempt to probe Minos' power. Besides the fact that they were already aware that news of what happened in Vogel would spread and they could find out such a thing through this, they did not want to test this guy.

It was a little hard to believe that he had faced so many from Vogel and won, but it was not unbelievable. After all, it was Minos they were talking about!

And so, everything would go smoothly for him in his stay in Rosser's capital city, where he would stay for more than a day before leaving for Albano.

...

Meanwhile, in the central area of the Black Plain Empire...

Regina, level 67, was at this very moment flying towards Dry City after returning from an encounter with a local mercenary she had hired.

This woman had joined the forces of Minos and asked this fellow to take revenge on the elf who had killed her past passion. But the emperor had refused to help at the time, promising her that she would be able to get her revenge on her own.

After several years in Dry City, she had finally reached the level and financial power necessary to go on a quest for her revenge!

Thus, she had hired a mercenary from one of the Empire guilds, those institutions where people not associated with powerful families could post or do missions.

There were already high-level Spiritual Emperors working as mercenaries in some guilds around the Black Plain Empire, and Regina had hired just one of them.

She was already at level 67, so as a poison master, paying someone like that was not expensive for her!

Anyway, after having her first encounter with that mercenary who was going to get the head of that elf for her, she had a serious expression as she returned to her duties in Dry City.

"Sigh..."

"I'm finally getting my revenge, Angela." She thought of her friend killed during Abe's main attack on Dry City, who had been her bodyguard for a long time before she met Minos.

'If you were here, we'd have a drink today...' She closed her eyes momentarily and felt her eyes grow moist.

Unfortunately, she could do nothing but go and visit her friend's grave in the Dry City Mausoleum.

With this in mind, she decided to go to such a place after buying a drink she usually had with Angela.

But as she was starting to decrease the altitude of her flight to land in one of the satellite cities of Dry City, she was suddenly surprised by some Spiritual Saint.

"Girl, can you tell us where Dry City is?" A voice of a woman who seemed younger than Regina but who actually had a few millennia more years of experience than she reached that poison master's ears.

She immediately left her contemplative state and looked at that level 79 Spiritual Saint, who two other individuals, also from this level, accompanied her.

Regina realized that they were not from the Gray Clouds Sect and asked. "Your Excellency, may I ask your purpose in going to Dry City?"

This poison master was dressed in one of the local army uniforms, so those people readily identified her as one of Minos' soldiers. Then as the other two looked at her, the woman said. "We are searching for an item that one of our members lost in this region."

"An item?" Regina frowned her eyebrows.

"Yes, we have been searching for it for some time, but we have not been successful. However, now that the Black Plain Empire is at peace and expanding towards the rest of the northern region, we believe that your state can help us."

"Of course, we will pay for it."

The local government had already begun talks with the Spiritual Church for it to absorb more northern region states into the empire.

The governments of those kingdoms wanted this, and Minos had already left orders for the bureaucratic processes to be sorted out with the Church since the Black Plain could now absorb them.

These people knew this, which is why they were there.

'Do they know that we have started absorbing the northern states?' Regina wondered. 'How? It's less than a week since Matriarch Frost started the talks with the Church!'

But then this woman smiled and asked. "Where do you people come from? From the Church?"

The three laughed before one of the two men commented. "We don't come from the Church, although we have heard about the Black Plain from them..."

"Hmm, I thought that was a lie... But who knew? The Black Plain recovered its spiritual root, and now this place has as much energy as the best places in the Flaming Empire." The other said, causing that woman to nod.

"Perhaps the local energy levels will continue to grow and become equal to those of the Evergreen Empire..." She murmured as she felt the spiritual density in the surroundings.

The recovery of Dry City's spirit root was coming to an end. Therefore, even Spiritual Saints could already live in this area without it becoming a problem for their cultivation.

Regina knew that since the army expected the local spiritual energy to keep increasing for another 5 or 6 years, so she simply ignored these people's comments.

However, she could not ignore it when one of them showed her the symbol of an organization marked as an enemy of the Black Plain!

'Blood Triangle Pirates...'