The Rise of the Black Plain

After Minos paid for the 50 techniques, that old man quickly checked the contents of the two bags and then left that room to pick up the items purchased by this young man.

That was a special purchase, something this old man wouldn't usually see around here. However, aside from the little curiosity to know where Minos came from, this old man wasn't all that concerned about it.

Although few people bought copies of techniques from this specialization and Minos' deal was grand, professionals in this field generally earned very well. After all, in addition to being few, they were also involved in widespread matters, as in trade negotiations.

Consequently, like the poison masters, the service of spiritual judges was not cheap. On the contrary, it could even be considered one of the most expensive of all spiritual professions!

These people had to train and cultivate much longer than ordinary cultivators. Hence, their services cost something proportional to the extent of their efforts.

So, it was inevitable that the price would be high.

And because of this, generally, this professional would not be used in more routine situations, such as, for example, the case of the subordinates of a family, or the soldiers of a specific organization...

One couldn't create thousands of contracts quickly due to the few spiritual judges and their lower cultivation level. To give you an idea, a cultivator like the elder Norman, someone over 700-years-old had only reached level 49, even with Black talent and Black-grade cultivation technique.

And for this type of professional, they would at most be able to make contracts with people up to 10 levels above their own. Above that, the difference in power of the souls involved in the procedure would become too great, and the spiritual judge would fail to finalize the contract.

Thus, due to these limiting problems, in this region, it was not a common practice to make contracts with all subordinates of a power.

Such a thing would be costly and would probably take a long time to accomplish.

But neither was there a need so great that it was necessary to use Soul Contracts with all the subordinates of a power. That's because most of these people just did typical jobs and wouldn't know any compromising secrets.

Therefore, in general, it would not be worth making such an investment. But, on the other hand, apart from the cases related to slave labor, the common thing to see in the northern region of the Central Continent were individuals spontaneously entering families, sects, organizations...

And there really could be spies trying to infiltrate these organizations or situations like that. But again, usually, ordinary people in power would not have access to crucial information.

As for those who could have such access, these would undoubtedly sign an agreement to avoid information leaks and other problems!

For illustration, think of the cases of Lee and Alison and the rest of the Black Plain Army soldiers. To the rest of the soldiers, they all knew little more than the rest of the Dry City population. To be more precise, the only things they knew that most people didn't know about were Silver-grade techniques and external threats.

Other than that, everything they knew was known to the standard population of their town. In this case, unless Minos were to sign a contract with every inhabitant, it would make no sense to do such a thing with his ordinary soldiers.

As for the possibility of them leaking information about the Silver-grade techniques, that was very difficult. That's because, in a world where individual strength means success, learning better techniques was the same as getting close to achieving such a thing!

An individual could earn very little selling information about techniques. Yet, he could make a lot if he got stronger from those techniques!

Therefore, no one would mistake leaking such information when they have not even had the chance to learn such techniques.

To do such a thing would be like wasting a golden chance for a few crumbs!

And hell, those soldiers didn't even have the techniques in hand!

How would they confirm the integrity of such information? How could anyone believe that a power that did not exist until a few years ago in the poorest region of the Central Continent would have such things without actual proof?

Because of all this, Minos wouldn't bother to make contracts with his ordinary soldiers. But some had contracts with him, which were precisely the cases of the two youths who knew about the Spatial Kingdom.

From the moment Minos could pay for a spiritual judge to go to the Dry City, he had signed an agreement with those two.

As for the rest, Minos felt no such need.

Dillian was someone to be trusted, and the foxes in the Spatial Kingdom stayed in that place all the time and were interested in staying that way. So, he wouldn't make contracts with these individuals.

Anyway, that was the reality of this profession, which is so relevant in the Spiritual World. All significant businesses needed the participation of spiritual judges, and because of that, Minos was willing to invest so much in this.

His current town already had a few grade-1 spiritual judges, the people brought there, to validate the agreements with those two youths.

Upon discovering the Dry City, they had naturally been delighted and taken their families there!

...

Finally, a few minutes passed, and the elder Norman returned with all the techniques that Minos had paid for.

"Here... If there's anything else you want, just say so. In two days, I will go out to sign some contracts in the south of the kingdom, and the association will have no elders available for some time." He said this as he watched the couple rise from where they had sat.

"Hmm, thanks for the warning, Elder Norman, but that's all. I think we will go awhile without doing such deals, and I don't need any Soul Contracts right now."

"Oh? So, we'll see another time."

"Hmm, see you later, have a good time."

After that, the couple quickly left that building, heading towards a place where they would relax while listening to music and having a meal. Now, only one thing held them in this town, but that couldn't be helped.

Consequently, they would enjoy Athela's pleasant atmosphere as they rested for their next training session in the local cultivation tower.

...

And so, the days left to the deadline given by that blacksmith came to an end.

It was time for young Stuart to receive his medium-level grade-2 sword!

And as soon as the day began, the couple had already prepared themselves adequately to leave Athela after Minos got his hands on that sword.

They would continue their journey east from Athela for approximately ten days until they reached a town called Wilburg, which was home to the Cohen family's headquarters!

In this place, the two youths would carry out negotiations regarding future purchases of the Black Plains with that family and try to attract more professionals to their city.

Other than that, there wasn't much more for the two of them to do in that place, and Minos didn't expect to be there for as long as he had been here in Athela.

'Ahh, in the blink of an eye, we've been traveling for almost five months... I wonder how the Dry City is? Was there a problem?'

'The unemployed population of the City of Waters has probably already finished their migration to my town...'

'And there are the army soldiers... Eda must be almost level 50 by now, and her training must have yielded many results...' Minos thought about it all, realizing that his trip was already ending.

He still had a long way to go, and it would probably take him about four months to get to the Dry City, but he couldn't help but think about his territory.

He had invested so much in that place and watched it grow from something of no use to a living area that anyone with power would fight for.

Therefore, he felt a special feeling for that region and always thought of that place when he traveled abroad.

Finally, the couple quickly arrived in front of a property with a large, high wall, which indicated the name, The Weapons House...