The Rise of the Black Plain

While the most influential people in the Chambers family discussed how to proceed with the investigation into Kevin's death, outside that mansion, the townspeople discussed this news in various ways.

On a specific property, on the impoverished side of this Chambers-ruled town, two elderly people, a man and a woman, were talking to some customers of that establishment.

The people who frequented this place were all humble cultivators who have White talent, not worth enslaving, but still needed to do the 'minor' activities.

Therefore, people like that existed in all parts of the North of the Central Continent, even in a city where the sovereign family used the slave policy.

Anyway, as people from the lowest social strata of this place, all those people had their own stories and tragedies, as well as their opinion on the latest news in the city.

When starting another day of work, the couple who own this establishment was attending their regular customers, when suddenly, people there began to smile and raise their cups in the air.

"Old Keith, I know your daughter can't come back to life, but knowing her captor and murderer has been killed must be truly excellent, huh?" A tall, strong man spoke as he looked towards the owner of this establishment.

Unfortunately for this family, Kevin had gotten in their way after liking the look of Keith's daughter. But like many young women in this world, her above-average beauty had been a tragedy for this man's daughter.

She didn't have high talent, so she was just a toy in the eyes of Kevin, who, after getting tired, just threw her away, dead...

Anyway, on hearing this, the old man who owned this property nodded, but he didn't change his expression, not even a bit. Knowing that Kevin had been killed had taken some of the weight off this man's conscience, but it didn't alleviate the longing he felt for his daughter.

The same could be said of his wife, who still mourned the death of her only child. She then answered in her husband's place. "It's good to know that that degenerate is dead. I hope it was terrifying for him!"

"Mrs. Ursula, I expect the same! That bastard also killed my cousin, but unfortunately, I could never do anything... But he got what he deserved!" Another customer said in a low voice, so only the people in that place could hear.

"Don't celebrate too loud. Only one of them was eliminated. There are several others like Kevin in this damn place."

"Hmm, true. If my family hadn't lived here for so long, I would have moved away from this place. The Chambers are a pest. You can't expect anything good while they're here."

"Oh? And why don't you move?"

"I can't, I can't make my elderly parents go through this, nor can I leave them... Ahh, I hope that one day someone will release us from this burden!"

And so, conversations of this type continued to take place in several different parts of the city. At the same time, many people secretly celebrated Kevin's death.

...

Elsewhere in the northern part of the Central Continent, in the Dry City, little change had taken place in the city since Minos left to rescue Peter.

However, a few thousand more people had arrived in young Stuart's territory from the City of Waters. With that, the many job vacancies in this place were gradually being filled, making possible a slight improvement in the internal economy.

The agricultural fields were increasing in area and had already surpassed the mark of one thousand hectares, which employed more than 70 thousand people from the Dry City.

But that was not all, with the constant development of the city, the construction sector was one of the busiest in this place. It was the second most active area in that place!

More than 20,000 people were constructing new buildings in the city of Minos, such as new public services, more avenues, residential structures, water supply systems, sewer systems, etc. Therefore, half of the city could be considered a construction site, which welcomed people of all cultivation levels to work!

As with agriculture, construction did not require workers to use spiritual techniques to do so. But, of course, there was a need for an alchemist in agriculture to develop a means of growing plants, just as in the construction, a design projected the buildings.

But for those who would do the building work, just the strength and energy given by their respective cultivation levels would be enough. Farmers and workers would just follow the 'recipe' given by those experts, developing buildings and crops!

Anyway, the people who came from the City of Waters were delighted with all this, especially with the possibility of using the Dry City Public Library.

In fact, many of them had already gone to this place and had even changed their cultivation techniques. After all, living longer was what they were after, and for that, they needed to cultivate faster!

But lately, it wasn't just living longer that motivated them. No, by the time they arrived in this town, they had all learned about the excellent conditions that Black Plain Army's soldiers received, and that was the new ambition of these people!

At this time, the city was experiencing a condition that stimulated this feeling, this dedication to improving that these newcomers had gained. That's because, in just a week, another selection for new army soldiers would happen!

Because of this, the entire city of Minos was excited, and conversations about this new selection were present in every corner of the town, with young and old talking about the subject.

...

In a public square in the Dry City, a group of people was looking at a large mural that was there, which had some helpful information for citizens.

A medium-sized map took up about a third of that mural, where newcomers to the city could quickly locate themselves and find where they were going.

It also had information about some jobs and services, the government advertisements. Such structure was present in every residential neighborhood of the city, in some of the squares in these places.

Finally, a group of 5 people was talking in front of that mural at this very moment, when a newcomer finally said eagerly. "Hehehe, I'm already at level 39. So, I think I can easily get a position in this selection!"

"It's not that easy, idiot! There must be many others at this level, but there are only 400 vacancies for people at this level!" A friend of the person from before, who also came from the City of Waters, complained to his friend.

The two had heard that the army of this place only recruited people who were at the end of each stage of cultivation, in groups. The largest batch were cultivators from the 1st stage of cultivation, following through the 2nd stage and going to the 5th stage. The latter having the smallest number of vacancies.

As for why it was that way, it was pretty simple. Each cultivator can change techniques, but there is a significant limitation to this, making people who do this weaker, or better, less proficient in fighting.

That's because the characteristics of the techniques depend on the phase of mastery a cultivator has over it. But when changing technique, an individual would already be losing. First, he would lose all accumulated understanding of the replaced technique.

Second, as a result of the spiritual incompatibility created by this change, this individual would be permanently limited, as he would have to learn techniques with fewer phases, with less potential!

Because of this, the substitute techniques, even if they were more efficient and ranked better, would still be more limited. And in a high-level fight, such a thing would be terrible!

Imagine if the young Stuart fought someone much faster than he. Suppose Minos' domain on the Spatial Sword was not excessively high. In that case, he could not affect someone capable of leaving his area of influence easily!

And such kind of characteristic was precisely related to the number of phases a cultivator can master over a technique!

In the case of the Spatial Sword, this mainly affected the space around Minos that was affected by this technique... With each phase that he mastered, the greater the space influenced by this technique.

And precisely because of this, Minos wanted to hire people who had at the end of each stage, giving greater importance to those who have not yet learned many techniques. That is, those youths from the lower stages.

This served for these soldiers to develop better, losing as little as possible, considering the standards of this region. They could have better techniques right from the start, being less negatively influenced by changes!

But on the other hand, Minos needed strong people on his side as soon as possible! He couldn't just hope that young people like Lee and Alison would grow up and be able to help him.

No, he needed more subordinates who were at least in the 4th stage of cultivation, people who could reach the 6th stage in a few years with Minos' resources!

Only then could he protect this place in the short term!