The Rise of the Black Plain



After weeks of traveling through the East Sea, Minos and Starclaw had left the northern vicinity of the Central Continent and were approaching the middle area of that sea region.

Their journey was still just beginning, for the distance from the Grinia Empire coast of the largest city in the Snow area was even greater than the distance Minos had traveled between the place in the Western Empire he passed and the floating island where the Seraphim Ancient Sarcophagus lay.

They had a few more months to go before they reached their destination, but they were sailing as fast as they could in their low-level grade-4 yacht.

Unfortunately, they could not risk traveling through wormholes or flying long distances in this area because neither knew the submarine power configuration.

Fortunately, with Starclaw's presence there, no one had approached them in the last few weeks.

There were pirates and groups of beasts that would attack other groups for no reason, sometimes simply to steal other people's things. But even beings like that avoided acting against high-level cultivators.

Starclaw was only at level 87, but she was a high-level Sage who was above more than 95% of the beings in this world.

Therefore, even powerful pirate crews would avoid putting Minos' group in their sights and would only act against them as a last resort.

Thus, the voyage had been smooth so far, as the two sailed in peace, even finding time to train and cultivate.

...

Another day had dawned as Minos' yacht continued to head east.

This morning he and Starclaw were passing through a relatively quiet area, with the sea calm and a sunny sky above them.

The sea breeze was sweaty this morning, and the temperature was pleasant, favoring those who could rest and enjoy the day.

Meanwhile, inside Minos' yacht, while Starclaw was controlling the yacht in the cockpit, Minos was meditating in this yacht's cultivation and training room.

He was sitting in a lotus position above a brown cultivation cushion in a place that looked like any other normal cultivation room.

While his eyes were closed, high-grade crystals shone brightly in his surroundings as their energy escaped to Minos' body.

Simultaneously, the transparent ceiling of this cultivation room allowed sunlight to enter, illuminating Minos and favoring his cultivation.

His technique had positive effects when trained during the day, especially in daylight.

As such, while Minos circulated his energies through the Solar God Breath, a golden vortex was in his surroundings, causing the spiritual energy and laws nearby to enter his lungs like water running down a drain.

While this was happening, one of Minos' arms glowed in the rainbow colors, while something special came out of the ring of the Spatial Kingdom.

This was the energy of one of the giant bones in that space, which he had placed a seal on weeks ago.

Since that day, Minos' body had been continuously blessed by the intense cultivation comprehensions of that thing. 

But not only that, when he cultivated it, he could steal the energies from it with his innate ability in the same way he did when he was in the Spatial Kingdom.

Even without going to that place for weeks, he was continuously managing to steal the cultivation base of that bone!

When he finished another cultivation session, Minos opened his eyes, and his lips arched as he clenched his fists.

'That really is a great advantage! Even without going to the Spatial Kingdom, I can cultivate almost as fast as when I'm there!' He pondered as he looked toward the invisible ring in one of his hands.

He then stood up in a good mood before leaving that area to head to the upper level of his yacht.

After a few steps, he saw Starclaw commanding that yacht and asked. "How much further do you have to go to reach level 88? It would be better for all of us if you could advance before we face my opponents in the Divine Continent."

Hearing this, Starclaw looked at Minos and then forward again, seeing the infinite blue in front of her.

"I'm not far away. I can't say for sure when it will happen, but with the resources you've been giving me, I believe I have a good chance of achieving this before we reach the Longus family." She said after thinking for a while, considering that they didn't know exactly where these people were.

They were sure this family was not on the coast of the Grinia Empire since there were no forests in that place, as the family ancestor had said.

Again, the Longus family could have changed their position over the past few thousand years. But as before, they would have to leave something behind, as it was in the interest of Henricus Longus' own relatives to have a way to bring the chosen one to them.

Whether they would betray the chosen one or not did not matter. In any case, they needed to be found by him, for they needed his help to become stronger.

Even with the change in the family's position at present, this did not change, and they should either be in the same position as said by that man in the message Minos received or have left something behind.

As such, they would have to investigate the whereabouts of this family more internally in Grinia Empire, which could take months to years for them to reach this family.

Hence came Starclaw's estimate!

"Well, that will be crucial to our journey," Minos commented before taking Starclaw's post to give her some meditation time.

Before she moved on with her cultivation, she looked at Minos and asked. "How? You are stronger than me."

"That's true, so looking from an individualistic point of view, this would be more for you to protect yourself than to help me." Minos did not hide the truth with his dry words. "But what if we get allies? Unlike in the Central Continent, where it is tough to find mercenaries at our combat level, in the Divine Continent, things are different.

There are giant organizations there that live by renting out their services, their forces to organizations able to pay their high rewards." 

He paused and smiled at her. "It will be difficult for us to get Demigods, but high-level Spiritual Sages would definitely agree to join us!"

"Oh?"

"With a large enough group, Starclaw, we can lessen the disadvantage of not having Demigods on our side!" Minos said confidently, sure that his strongest opponents were at the 10th stage but that they were not impossible to face.