The Rise of the Black Plain

Some time passed, and soon the young receptionist of this association had already returned to her post, while Minos and Abby had already arrived at the office of the elder who would receive them.

Upon arrival, the two noticed that there were some unusual artifacts that they had never seen outside of books in addition to the usual business decor in that place.

Among them were colored sheets, which glowed as if they were a living being while having strange symbols and distinct signatures.

These were the famous Soul Contracts, something the spiritual judges produced and used to secure deals...

For example, in an allied relationship like the one of Minos and Elen, the parties would often sign a Soul Contract, which would force both sides to follow the rules of the agreement.

After all, in the dangerous Spiritual World, betrayals could happen even in the best families...

As for the functioning of these agreements, for simplicity's sake, this connected the parties' souls temporarily into a unique artifact, the contract. After that, the spiritual judge would validate the terms of the agreement under the rules of Natural Law, creating a bond between the two parties.

Such a thing was like a watermark on the soul of those involved in the contract, which would influence them to follow the rules of the agreement, preventing one from purposely violating the contract.

In a way, seeing this as a restriction that kept something from happening wasn't wrong.

For example, Minos and Elen had signed such a contract when this young man had traveled to Stone Island. Before that, such a thing could not be done, as no one in the Dry City could validate it.

But that had been resolved before Minos' group left Stone Island before their negotiations had started.

And such a deal basically prevented both the young ruler of the Black Plain and the young woman of the Nash family from doing things that harmed each other and would purposefully violate the contract.

Obviously, this did not prevent naive mistakes!

As long as the person honestly believed that his decision was in favor of the agreement, such a thing would not be impeded by the spiritual bond, and there would also be no punishment, even if it entails great harm to the other part.

But if the desire to break the contract was strong enough and the influence of such a thing did not stop it, then there would be a punishment!

And that wasn't simple!

The world had its natural rules, things that not even the Gods, individuals of level 100, could contravene. And basically, the job of the spiritual judges was to use these laws to validate contracts.

And when a contract was broken, it was as if the law itself had been 'cheated.'

In this case, the Lightning Tribulation, which only Spiritual Demigods had to go through to reach level 100, would punish the side that broke the Soul Contract!

Consequently, unless someone had already reached level 100 and could survive such an ordeal, it would be impossible to endure the punishment generated by violating a Soul Contract!

Anyway, that was also one of the reasons why it was so much harder to be a spiritual judge. Natural laws were intangibles and were at a much higher level than cultivators at the beginning of the cultivation journey could reach.

Because of this, the techniques in this area were much more complex to create, learn and train. For example, there were no White-grade techniques specialized in this area!

The existing minimum classification was Blue-grade, and even so, it would still not be ideal. And precisely because of that, in a poor region like the one where Minos and Abby lived, such a specialization had not developed well.

The techniques were not of the best ratings, so the professionals in the area needed an average of 2 to 4 times more effort to master the respective phases of their techniques. As a result, the cultivation speed of spiritual judges was significantly lower than that of other professionals!

Hence the non-existence of high-level grade-2 spiritual judges in the northern region of the Central Continent.

Anyway, after Minos and Abby arrived in that office and observed the surroundings, soon an elderly man appeared there.

He used a golden crutch to move to a large leather armchair next to where two youths were sitting.

This man was one of the few elders of that guild, a medium-level grade-2 spiritual judge at level 49.

"Cough, cough, ehh, young Iris commented that you two want to buy some copies of our techniques, are there any mistakes?" The old man asked this as he settled himself in that armchair.

He looked rather frail, with a wrinkled face and long white hair, which in places blended in with his beard.

Hearing this, Minos and Abby nodded in agreement to him when this young man said. "That's right, Elder Norman. My partner and I are here to buy copies of techniques from the profession of spiritual judges."

"I see…"

"But before we talk about business, I would like to know something. Why are you looking for techniques like these? Are you two, by any chance, members of some spiritual judge organization? Because if you aren't, I don't think it's worth it for you to buy these techniques."

"Cough, cough, in addition to being more expensive than other professions, they take a long time to work. Look at my case, I've been over 300 years at level 49, and so far, I haven't been able to level up because I haven't mastered the equivalent phases of my techniques."

It must be said that Elder Norman had Black talent and could advance to level 50 with some ease. But he hadn't done such a thing not to lose the benefits that came with level promotion for his respective techniques.

After Norman finished speaking, Minos began to tell this old man his reason. "Hmm, we know that the profession of spiritual judges is one of the most difficult in the Spiritual World. But the organization we are part of has the ambition of being self-sufficient."

"We will do everything possible and impossible to fulfill our ambitions. As for the amount needed for this agreement, we are naturally already prepared to pay them."

"Oh? Interesting, there aren't many powers willing to do such a thing…" He commented at the same time that he had a slight smile on his face.

He didn't think it was bad to have more spiritual judges. After all, he hardly had time to come to the association himself due to the many Soul Contracts he constantly validated.

And if the other side understood the downsides of this profession, was willing to pay high prices, and still help increase the supply of spiritual judges in the region, then he had no reason to try to change the other side's mind.

There were only benefits for him here!

"Cough, okay. Let's talk about business..."

"As you may know, our area demands higher quality techniques. Because of that, our association has Blue-grade and Black-grade techniques in a different proportion than found in other areas."

"We have about 40 different types of Blue-grade techniques and 20 different Black-grade ones. As for prices, we charge 15,000 low-grade crystals for each Blue-grade copy and 700 medium-grade crystals for each Black-grade."

He then scratched his big white beard for a moment and asked Minos and Abby. "So, how much do you want?"

Hearing this, young Stuart paused for a moment to think about it. 'I still have about 1 million low-grade crystals with me and over 23,000 medium-grade crystals...'

After thinking for a while, he finally answered. "I want 40 different copies of the Blue-grade techniques and 10 different copies of the Black-grade."

Immediately upon saying this, young Stuart threw two bags containing the crystals needed to make this purchase on that table...