The Rise of the Black Plain

A few hours had passed since Dillian and Eda had passed in front of the future local hospital, and by now, it was almost midnight in the Dry City.

The movement that had been in the streets before had already diminished a lot, and now the silence predominated in most of the city.

But obviously, there was no way in a city the size of today's Dry City to have no movement, even during the night.

There were always those 'night people' who felt more willing to sort out their affairs at this time of day.

There was also a need for people like that. After all, certain services could not stop and had to work 24 hours a day. Because of this, however quiet the city streets were at this moment, one could still see certain people coming and going.

In the residential parts of the city, small groups of people in the same type of uniform passed by from time to time, quietly patrolling these areas.

The army still had this policing role in the Dry City, so small groups of soldiers could be seen at various city points.

However, unlike the residential neighborhoods with practically no movement other than these soldiers, more people could be seen there in the closest part of the city center.

Obviously, it was nothing significant, but there were already ordinary citizens around and soldiers patrolling.

In one corner, some carriages with grain unloaded their contents at a warehouse in the Central Market. At the same time, in another place, a group of citizens came and went from some public buildings.

The local library and the Cultivation Tower were open 24 hours a day, so some people left to go to these places in the middle of the night.

The movement in these places was always excellent, but there used to be more spaces during the nights. Even if it wasn't that significant, at least the wait wouldn't be as long as it was during the day.

And with places like these open, stores close to these two public services, they also switched to work during the night. There was always at least one restaurant open 24 hours around so that people who were coming to and from these two places could easily find something to eat on the street.

But not only because of these two services, after all, the soldiers themselves also ate during their shifts and other local workers who worked at night—for example, the Central Market's shippers.

Anyway, amid this nocturnal movement, another group of people could be seen along the main avenue of the Dry City at this moment.

They wore the same type of uniform, which was completely green, with no symbols. In addition, these people carried brooms and shovels, while two special carriages slowly accompanied them.

One seemed only to deposit garbage collected from the street, while the other looked like a large water tank, which had a hose attached to its back.

That was Dry City's general cleaning service!

Every day, during the night, the city's janitors took care of the local cleaning. They collected trash from the public garbages that was at strategic points while cleaning the streets and avenues.

Sometimes some spiritual beasts brought dirt to the city, as well as local citizens. And to keep the place clean and bug-free, local janitors manually removed the larger debris and used a liquid mixture to wash the lanes.

They also performed this service in parks and public restrooms or any location available to citizens. After all, for a city that wanted to be attractive, as was the case with this city of Minos, maintaining an excellent hygienic standard would be essential.

And considering that, the young Stuart had already established this service for months in this town!

Of course, they didn't clean the same street or location every day, as they had to clean the entire city, and there was no need to do this daily.

The local population did not dirty the streets for free, which also did not vigorously increase the dirt on the roads overnight.

Cleaning was done section by section, and each location received a group of local janitors twice a week.

Finally, while they varied the debris on that main avenue in the city center, three janitors had been talking in low voices.

One of them was collecting trash from the garbages of the places they passed, while the other two used their instruments to clean the lane they were on manually.

Behind them, there were also other people, besides, of course, the carriage that was pouring a bluish liquid, putting the places that had already received the manual service.

One of them then threw a bag into the carriage in front of them, which looked like garbage on wheels. "Neil, we arrived in this town four days ago. What do you think?" This man asked one of the other two who was sweeping that street.

Hearing this, Neil, who was picking up some leaves from the ground with his broom and shovel, didn't even bother to look at his companion and answered him. "I'm truly enjoying it. I never thought I could end up finding a place with so many opportunities right after the situation we were in."

The two were part of the group of captives Kevin had purchased in Hadia. And they were one of those people who had decided to accompany Minos' party in hopes of joining the army.

After arriving in the Dry City, they promptly received their IDs, as well as homes where they could live. After that, the next day, the two had already toured the entire city, knowing this place.

Since there were so many options available, the two had quickly found jobs. The two were working in the city's general cleaning service at night while working in the city's fields in the afternoons.

In the rest of the time they had left, the two of them could rest, live their lives, and cultivate in hopes of joining the army someday.

"It's true. Have you learned any new techniques at the local library?" The man who asked before continued the conversation with Neil.

"Hehe, I learned a Blue-grade cultivation technique yesterday. Once I get used to this change in techniques, I'll see if I can learn an attacking technique. And you?" He asked as he walked with the shovel full of leaves and threw that carriage from before.

"Yes, I did what you did..." They continued to talk for a while longer when Neil finally asked about something he hadn't seen in the Dry City. "Carl, did you happen to see any branches of the Spiritual Church around here? I didn't see any."

Hearing this, Carl immediately shook his head in denial. "I haven't seen anything like that either. It's strange. I thought most cities this size had branches of the Spiritual Church."

And that was a fact. The Spiritual Church was the main religion of the Central Continent. It had already spread to even the most remote places in this part of the Spiritual World. Not only that, most of the royal families in the region where the Dry City was located followed the 'doctrines' of that power.

Even the coronation ceremony of a kingdom was something administered by representatives of that organization. Thus, the local Bishops usually took over the coronation ceremony, being the person who validated the royal powers of a king.

The Spiritual Church was subdivided into seven hierarchies. It started for people from the 4th stage of cultivation, in the following order: Deacon, Priest, Bishop, Archbishop, Patriarch, Cardinal, and Pope.

Each hierarchy differed from one stage of cultivation, except for the last two, that something different from normal could happen. After all, the Pope could only be one person, so if he were a Spiritual Demigod, the other church members at this stage would simply be Cardinals.

It wasn't easy for a cultivator to reach level 100, so it would be difficult for the Pope to reach this level...

Finally, each kingdom in the northern region of the Central Continent had at least one Bishop, and these individuals were the highest authorities of the Spiritual Church in this region.

Because of this, they were the ones who commanded the crowning ceremonies.

On the other hand, even in smaller towns, such as the Dry City, there was at least one small post of this organization, with at least one Deacon commanding it. Because of this, these two former captives who had just arrived in this city found it strange that there was no branch of the Spiritual Church around here!