The Rise of the Black Plain

After sending Starclaw into the Spatial Kingdom, which Minos could do without drawing attention from potential experts in his surroundings given his current space abilities, he departed that area, continuing on his way.

The Dark Sea had already taken care of the beasts that had seen him acting; some had even died, and others were so frightened that they would hide for the next few years in fear of those creatures of the shadows.

With no more worries in this place, Minos quickly made his way to the Veora Kingdom's border with the Western Empire.

On this part of his journey, he once again crossed the border through a wormhole without difficulty entering this empire.

But even if Minos had not used this strategy, he would have easily crossed the border of the Western Empire.

Besides the fact that the empire was preparing for a war against Southern Demigods and was not so concerned about mere low-level Spiritual Sages, the emperor himself had taken Minos' name off any wanted list.

He knew this young Northern Emperor had committed crimes in his state years ago. Still, Henry saw Minos as one of the few who agreed with his concerns and was willing to do something about it.

As such, he had ignored Minos' actions from years ago in his empire and had already sent to his vassal organizations and his army that if they saw Emperor Stuart, they should not stand in his way.

In any case, Minos had chosen a more secret way to get through this state and strode as he had done the other time.

But in the present, he knew things he was not aware of in the past and immediately took some extra care when moving.

He didn't have much experience moving through this state since he had only traveled briefly in this empire. However, in Grant's previous passage through Dry City, this man had left a map of the empire with Minos, which this emperor had requested, given his interest in going to Lusmait.

As such, even though he did not know much about the Western Empire, Minos had his path laid out on such a map and was not moving in the dark.

He knew the places he wanted to avoid, and his path could be considered the best for him.

It was longer, but at least it did not pass through the territory of any sect, family, or area of extreme importance in this state.

And so his journey through this state had begun without problems!

...

The Western Empire was one of the largest on the continent in terms of area and population. To give you an idea, this state was almost six times larger than the Veora Kingdom and had almost 3 billion inhabitants.

Most of this population was closer to the northern coast of the Empire, given the distance of this area from the Eastern Empire, its historical enemy.

So the most remote areas of this state were further south, where the long border of this state with its neighbor and historical enemy was.

It was precisely around this area that Minos was making his journey.

As he crossed the Veora Kingdom's border with the Western Empire near the northern coast of the empire, near the Ancestral Sea, Minos immediately changed his direction, going south.

He intended to travel through the southernmost central areas of the Western Empire, where there were fewer cities in his path to slow him down in some way.

Given his speed, he reached this area in only four days of traveling and finally began traveling westward!

...

It was evening, and at the moment, Minos was stopping to get some rest and eat something warm.

He no longer needed to do this often, but once every three days, he liked to make short 1-hour stops to eat and recover from the constant traveling.

Maybe his body didn't need this, but he felt it made his mind good to take approaches like this, even though he was hurrying to settle the Longus family matter.

As he stood in front of a campfire with meat on a spit in the middle of a forest, a gray-haired, yellow-green-eyed woman was tending the fire for him.

This was Starclaw!

After spending a few days in the Spatial Kingdom under the care of Minos' people, she recovered most of her injuries.

Minos summoned her back to his side and had been traveling with her since this morning.

She was a level 87 winged beast, so she usually flew much faster than he did!

At the same time, he could only fly faster than her if he stole a victim's cultivation base, so using her was a much less flashy way to get around this state.

As he ate and now and then listened to the stories of that woman, who was very interested in helping him after her previous discoveries, she noticed humans approaching her position.

"We are leaving. There are people moving this way." She suggested, preferring to avoid these people, even considering they were only Spiritual Saints.

Minos had already noticed these people, but he was sensing soul fluctuations that he knew of. So he didn't move right away, trying to remember who those people were.

'That spiritual fluctuation, I don't remember where I've felt it before, but the other one is from someone in the Nash family... Luke!' 

He remembered Elen's cousin, who had challenged him in the past, but also helped him get mercenaries in this state at the time he was facing Abe Vogel.

'I know. The other one is the person who was with him the last time I saw him that day.' He remembered years ago.

The memory of cultivators was excellent, but it was not an automatic thing that they would remember everything instantly. They needed to think about fences to remember certain facts.

Minos then realized that Luke and the man who had traveled with this young master Nash to the northern region had come a long way since they had last seen each other.

Currently, Luke was at level 70, while that man was at level 74.

"Wait a moment. I know some of these people." Minos said to his traveling companion, surprising her.

"Are you sure? I thought you had to reach Lusmait as quickly as possible." She asked, trying to help her leader make the right decision.

If he was in a hurry, the logical thing to do was to ignore these people and move on with his path so as not to get involved in any unnecessary trouble.

But Minos said. "Starclaw, these people helped me with something important once upon a time. As much as I paid them for it, I haven't seen them in decades. Let's just say hello to them. It won't cost anything."

After saying that, Minos' eyes sparkled, and all of Luke and Oriel's companions passed out.

...