The Rise of the Black Plain

Four days passed, and the entire harvest had been sold. After the success of rice, many families sought to know what other crops had been planted in the Black Plain. With this, the 10 tons of grains and cereal were sold in the blink of an eye!

That is because these items were so rich in spiritual energy that when someone from the first and second stages of cultivation ate a few spoons, they could achieve a breakthrough in their levels!

And in these stages of cultivation, spiritual crystals couldn't be used to cultivate. But it was still possible to use the spiritual energy present in food. So, even if the amount of energy in food was much less than that present in crystals, it was still something that could make a big difference.

Thus, eating this type of energy-rich culture was something with very high demand, and when coupled with the low price of commercialization, then the products of the Black Plain went viral within the Dry City.

Because of that, Minos now had 49,500 crystals in his hands. Of this amount, he would leave 32,000 to pay new farmers who would cultivate plus six hectares in the next 2-3 months. In addition, he would start building the Black Plain Army's headquarters from the remaining amount.

With that, he could start recruiting in 3 months, when the new harvest has been done, and the Dry City had enough funds for the new hires. He would also open a spiritual academy at that time!

As for the purchase of spiritual pills that could help those with talent below the Black rank, he would let these guards reach the peak of their stages first.

That's because none of them was at level 39, which was a bottleneck hard to pass without outside help for individuals with Blue talent. And not only were the city guards not at that level, but not even Minos' guards reached that level, with the strongest of them being only at level 38.

…

In the Spatial Kingdom, things were very calm as expected. But there was something different today. Besides Minos, three other people were cultivating in front of the big house, near the lake.

These three were butler Dillian, Lee, and Alison.

As to why they were here, well… That was because, for the butler Dillian, he didn't have much work lately. The city didn't have enough funds for the necessary changes, so he could only concentrate on cultivating and getting stronger for now.

And training in the Spatial Kingdom would considerably increase the speed of anyone in the North of the Central Continent. As for Lee and Alison, they had Black talent and could advance faster if they trained in a place with a high spiritual concentration, such as the Spatial Kingdom.

Thus, Minos convinced these two families to let them go through Minos' 'special training.' But, of course, the young Stuart didn't elaborate on what would happen since it wasn't good for others to know.

As for the two youths, Minos wanted them to get stronger quickly. So, he decided to invest in these two and let them live within the Spatial Kingdom for one year, which would be enough time for them to reach the Spiritual Beginner stage.

After that, they could cultivate outside the Spatial Kingdom using spiritual crystals.

Minos also promised the youths a Silver-grade technique so that they wouldn't tell anyone about the place where they would be during this period.

Finally, he was now at level 21, but he had a problem. He had only cultivated and trained alone until now, so he didn't know how strong he would be in a real fight.

With that, he wanted to start training with his guards.

And considering the ability of Minos' Physique, increased energy, coupled with Golden-grade techniques, he was confident that he wouldn't lose a fight against someone up to level 27 or 28.

So, although he wasn't sure if he would win, the young Stuart assumed that he could have some challenge only from that level. Below that, he would undoubtedly win, and there would be no point in it.

Then, Minos looked for Commander Pyke to talk.

…

After talking to Mia, Minos finally received Pyke in his office.

"I heard from Mia that the young master was looking for me. How can I help you?"

"I want to find someone to train with me. Ask some guards between levels 27 and 28 to come and see me in the courtyard behind the mansion." He said excitedly.

After hearing Minos' order, Pyke was quite surprised and confused at the same time. First, because this young man didn't seem like the type who cares about that kind of thing, and second, because what he was trying to do should be impractical for most people.

After all, it wasn't common to fight through the cultivation levels in these regions.

"This… Is the young master sure to face such a huge difference in levels? I don't want to look like I'm despising the young master, but that is a considerable difference." Said the commander while making an earnest face.

Minos then replied at the same time as he drank a cup of tea from the table. "Don't worry. I don't think that fighting through the levels is trivial. But due to my high-grade techniques, I will have no challenge if I fight against people weaker than that."

Commander Pyke then stopped to think for a while. There was indeed a big difference between the quality of the techniques of different degrees. And since Minos was distributing Black-grade techniques as if they were tomatoes, that meant he was training techniques at an even higher level.

After thinking this seriously, he concluded that there would be no problem. "Okay, I'll get them together as soon as possible."

After saying this, they said goodbye and returned to focus on some fundamental issues of the Dry City.

…

A few hours later, Minos was waiting for the group of soldiers with whom he would experience his first fight when Commander Pyke finally arrived with a group of men.

There were ten guards, with six of them at level 27 and the rest at level 28.

In fact, there were initially supposed to be 15 guards at that level, but since Minos learned of their numbers, five of them had advanced to level 29, while three of them were at level 27 for level 28.

"Hello everyone, starting today, I hope that some of you can help me train daily. But, of course, you still have your responsibilities, so I'm not going to occupy you at the same time."

Minos then continued. "Today, I want to fight someone at level 27 to see how I do. As for the others, you can watch if you want, or you can leave too."

He then asked. "Is anyone willing? And don't worry, you don't have to take it easy. You can fight normally."

However, there wasn't much reaction of them. But suddenly, Minos thought of something interesting.

"How about this, we'll fight here for three weeks, I'll fight two different people per day, but someone who once fought with me has to wait for the others to fight too. In that period, whoever can beat me three times will win a Silver-grade technique."

After hearing this, the eyes of the ten people almost popped out of their eye sockets. A Silver-grade technique just to defeat someone who was 6 or 7 levels weaker than them!

Some of them were already very excited about it while they were thinking. 'This is going to be a piece of cake, hehe.'

Even Pyke was impressed. In fact, he also wanted to participate in it. But, unfortunately, there would be no way for such a thing to happen at his level.

'How unlucky!' He thought.

"You can choose the order among you, but those at level 28 have to be last in the group." Minos said while holding his hands behind his back. He then thought to himself. 'You suppose it'll be easy. Hehe, I just want to see it.'

After a few minutes of discussing the order, one of them introduced himself to Minos. "I would be the first to try, young master." Said one of the level 27 guards.

This guard was Jov. He was 29-years-old, 1.8 meters tall, and with black hair. He had entered the guard eight years ago when he reached level 20.

"Very well! Commander Pyke will be the judge of this fight, and the fight will end when either of us is exhausted or when someone surrenders." Minos spoke as he prepared himself.

After that, everyone agreed with this and other rules. Then, the fight was about to start!

"Are you ready? So, you can start now." Pyke said excitedly.

In fact, for simple people like him, watching such games was a pleasure. It made his blood heat up!

At that moment, Minos held a blunt sword, and Jov did not use any weapon. This is because the attack technique of the guard in question did not require a weapon.

At that point, Jov activated his technique with 60% of his power, which he thought would be necessary to win this fight. His technique was a Black-grade one that he had received from Commander Pyke through the butler Dillian.

The name was Destroyer Fist, which, when activated, created an energy fist, that would attack whatever was in the way.

'Hmm, this should be enough, hehe.' Jov laughed in his mind.

At the same time, while dodging the fist coming towards him, Minos activated the Spatial Sword. After this, everything within a radius of 20 meters stopped as if time had frozen, while Jov's speed was decreased by a small margin.

That's because he was way above Minos' level.

Then everyone around, including Jov himself, realized something was wrong. And their expressions were slowly beginning to change.