The Rise of the Black Plain

As Minos' group traveled towards the Black Plain, three people walked in a mountainous region in the Snow Kingdom.

In this place, snow completely covered each of the mountain peaks, with only a few highly tall trees far apart at the base of these natural formations.

It was pretty cold at that time, while the strong wind in this region made the thermal sensation even lower. But these three people were not feeling uncomfortable with such a thing.

Not because they could control their temperatures perfectly to the point where they ignored the outside environment, they couldn't. But because each one wears clothes specially made for regions like this one.

They could not hesitate with the cold in places like the borders of the Snow Kingdom with the other states in the region, where the Endless Snow Mountain Range extended for more than 10,000 kilometers!

Such formation began at the northernmost point of the Snow Kingdom, where there was the boundary with the Kingdom of the End, passing through the Kingdom of the Waves border with this state. Then, it finally left the Snow Kingdom behind, heading west, to the border that separated the Kingdom of the Waves and the Brown Kingdom, near the Black Plain, where it met its end.

In short, the Endless Snow Mountain Range was the highest altitude place in the entire northern region of the Central Continent, with points that were more than 20 thousand meters high!

Along with this, this region had an eternal ice layer at its highest points. And because most of this structure was in the Snow Kingdom, this state had been named in honor of such a geographical feature.

This region was very rich in minerals and the natural habitat of several powerful spiritual beasts from this northern region of the Central Continent. For example, there were the Diamond Monkeys!

Anyway, atop three beasts that looked like bears, the group talked as they rose one of the Endless Snow Mountain Range's hills in the Snow Kingdom's midwestern region.

"What do you think of this news, young master? Is it indeed true that he died?" One of the two men accompanying a young man with black hair doubtfully asked as he recalled the information they had heard a few days ago.

"Hmm, I was also surprised. I heard that this individual was a very calm person, not involved in the royal family's affairs. He didn't even have exceptional talent... Why would anyone try to kill such a person?" The young man commented at the same time that he rubbed one of his hands over the other.

"Maybe the second prince of the Snow Kingdom got involved in something he shouldn't have..."

"Uh, it's too bad for him. From what I heard, he was skinned alive, even his genitalia..." The other man, who was on the young man's right side, commented, sighing heavily.

They had heard this information while traveling through the Endless Snow Mountain Range. Such a thing was disturbing and very rare to happen. Because of that, they could not stop talking about the subject, trying to understand the reasons for such a situation.

"By the way, I just remembered something! In this last edition of the Spiritual Tournament that took place, I learned that a close friend of the second prince had participated and reached the final stage of the competition." One of the bodyguards said.

"Does this have anything to do with such an event? I heard that person participated..."

They continued to talk for a while until they finally reached a point where a large wooden building was located.

The area was quite large, with several wooden fences enclosing a territory measuring more than a square kilometer, from which passersby could observe beasts drinking water at some points.

And after a few minutes, the group of these three people finally found the individual they were looking for in that location.

"Hello. How can I help you?" A strong young man said this aloud as he placed a large sack of ration on a piece of equipment on the side of that large building.

Upon hearing this, the young man leading this group began to speak. "My name is Christian Reid, and these two are my bodyguards. I understand that you witnessed the death of my younger brother Tristram, so I'm here to get information about who was responsible for this."

That was, in fact, Christian's group, which had already been traveling for months to fulfill Misty's little desire for revenge...

After leaving the Brown Kingdom, they rushed to the Snow Kingdom, where they found some people connected to the events at the Peak of the Fog, where Tristram died.

However, the first clues that Christian had obtained were useless. In one of them, the person he was looking for had died, and in the other, the person in question had moved to another state after his marriage...

But this young man from the Reid family had finally had a bit of luck to find this person in front of him, the first witness he had a chance to interrogate!

Finally, hearing Christian's comment, that man looked at him for a moment with a surprised expression and then began to try to remember. 'Tristram? I've heard this name somewhere…' He then placed his left hand over his mouth and his right arm around his chest as he looked at the floor thoughtfully.

"Ahh! You talk about that person who died at the Peak of the Fog?" He asked right after almost a full minute, thinking from where he had heard that name.

That, of course, was not unusual to happen. As good as a cultivator's memory was, it could sometimes be difficult to remember something right away, especially concerning things unimportant to that person's life...

The event of Tristram's death had even been shocking, and this young man remembered it perfectly. But Christian had used the wrong keywords to remind him of such a thing...

Who would remember the name of an individual who died after a single blow?

Tristram's death had come so quickly that the people who witnessed it didn't even bother to look at the young man's pieces of flesh. Only those people's fear of Minos had suppressed any other thoughts of them at that time!

Anyway, seeing that this person had something to say, a discreet smile slowly formed on Christian's face. 'Finally! I can finally complete this trip!' He thought, inwardly cheering for meeting this person.

The young man who lived on that mountain then looked at Christian sympathetically and said. "Now that I stopped to think, I remember Tristram's death very well. At that time, we were all at the Peak of the Fog to compete for the Warrior-grade medicine there."

"The Rainbow Fruit!"

"But none of us could harvest such a thing, so we stayed on the outskirts, waiting for someone capable to come along and allow us to fight..."

"Unfortunately for all of us and even worse for Tristram and his bodyguard, the person who showed up was far more powerful than any of us could handle."

"What?" One of Christian's two subordinates asked in shock. "Are you saying that a single person harvested such medicine and frightened the entire group of competitors? As far as we know, there were 15 people in that place!"

"Tell the truth! We're not here to play games, brat!" The other man brandished.

"I'm telling the truth."

"Back then, when that person had been involved in the dispute over medicine, none of us knew how terrifying he was. But after he killed Tristram in one move, no one dared to do anything else."

After hearing this, Christian immediately furrowed his brows. 'A level 46 bodyguard accompanied Tristram that time...'

'How would someone stronger than that get involved in a dispute for a simple Warrior-grade medicine?'

He then set those questions aside and got right to the point. "But who was this person? Do you know him? Do you have any idea where he comes from?"

"I know as much as anyone else who participated in the Spiritual Tournament knows...."