The Rise of the Black Plain

As Ruth began her journey to leave the Flaming Empire, traveling towards the Black Plain, three men actively talked in the middle of a square in Farmland, a town in the Cromwell Kingdom.

It was night and windy in this place where these men were, to the point where the noise was perfectly audible, surpassing the typical sounds of a city like this one.

Besides, it was a little cold at the moment, and many of the people that circulated in the surroundings of that square were dressed in typical winter clothes, with scarves and coats. However, despite the cold natural weather, the temperature around these three men seemed to be much lower...

The three of them had grim expressions on their faces. If they were watched closely, anyone could see how dilated the veins were in the neck and forehead of these individuals.

Furthermore, each of them exuded a chilling intention, which was making all the ordinary people who passed through that place avoid approaching them.

One of them was standing, while the other two were sitting on a stone bench in the middle of that square, talking seriously but without losing their composure..

In fact, if someone tried to overhear the conversation of these three, maybe that person would be a little shocked by the calm tone they were talking to, despite the unhappy look they had on their faces.

And as the dry leaves on the lawn of that square were lifted by the wind and thrown away, one of them said. "I don't think there's any point in us continuing in the Cromwell Kingdom. If there were any clues in this place, we would have found it a long time ago."

Hearing this, a red-haired man who was sitting on that bench nodded in agreement. "Oscar is right, Urban. We've already checked every possible location in this state that Sarah's group could reach."

"I… I think we have no choice but to tell the patriarch that we failed in our mission. That way, we can at least take our punishment and get back to our daily life…" Scott commented at the same time as he clenched his fists in frustration.

These three men were the members of the Silva family who had been assigned to investigate the deaths of Darell Silva, the former young master of that noble house of the Brown Kingdom, and the Sarah Silva group.

But after so many months of investigating, they hadn't found anything, despite their tireless work.

In fact, they had worked so hard that in just over two years since being assigned this task, they had thoroughly checked out the possible locations of the murders of Sarah and her companions in the Cromwell Kingdom, Kingdom of the Waves, and Stone Island.

But they always ended at the same point...

Nothing!

And finally, they had come to this present moment where they were all frustrated and almost ready to give up on this problem.

It was very frustrating not getting anything, not knowing their mistake, and why they didn't make any progress...

And no wonder they were about to give up!

"We can only go to the Black Plain now..." The group leader said with a disdain look.

Indeed, this was the last place left for them to pass... But the chances were simply zero!

It was so unlikely that the other two men couldn't help but laugh after hearing their leader's comment.

"Hahahaha! Boss, stop joking, I know we're at a dead-end, but this joke is not good for us. Haha." The muscular man who had been standing a few moments ago said this as he tried to lean on that stone bench, holding his abdomen with one hand and laughing a lot.

"Hehehehe, but despite being funny, there is only this place left." The red-haired man commented, remembering that they hadn't tried to probe the Black Plain.

And right after laughing some moments, he got serious and said. "But seriously, even if such a thing happened in that place, then the enemies are probably from outside that region."

"After all, there's no way a place that doesn't even have Spiritual Generals could eliminate three people near the end of this cultivation stage!"

Urban then nodded and spoke again. "Yes, because of that, we probably won't be able to find anyone who can identify the culprits for us."

"Hell, these people can't even feel the spiritual power of other cultivators. So, how could they distinguish a powerful cultivator among them?"

And such a thing was crucial in an investigation!

Because even if a crime was considered 'perfect,' that is, without witnesses, there were still ways to find the most likely suspects to be the culprits!

That was neither easy nor quick to do. Nonetheless, as long as there were individuals capable of determining the cultivation level of others and also willing to speak, a 'perfect' crime could be solved sooner or later.

For example, one crime could take place in the middle of a forest without witnesses present. However, those involved in such a situation would eventually seek refuge in human cities. They could protect themselves and cultivate in those places, free from the natural hazards associated with forest regions.

And with that, considering the time of death of the victims, the region where the victims were last seen, the cities close to such an area, then the chances of the culprit having passed through one of these places would be almost 100%!

And from this information, investigators like these three could do the part of their work that depended on local inhabitants, who could identify the arrival and departure of unusual individuals.

The culprits would usually buy pills or things like that to recover themselves. In some cases, they would have some injuries, marks of recent fights.

From these characteristics and the cultivation level of these unusual people, these inhabitants could provide essential tips for investigations like this one.

That's because, in addition to a good memory, cultivators were also curious individuals who would try to find out the level of people in their surroundings at almost all times!

For all that, it was not impossible to solve 'perfect' crimes in the Spiritual World!

But for that, they needed people capable of distinguishing the level of others, that is, with minimum cultivation of level 40, something that didn't exist in the Dry City...

"Most likely, this won't help us. But since we don't have any other possibilities, we'd better investigate that place carefully..."

"At least it will show the patriarch that we did everything we could!" Urban commented, just before heaving a big sigh.

He couldn't even be happy about the breakthrough he'd had recently because of all this disappointment.

In fact, of this man's group, only Oscar had failed to increase his strength since he had seen the Silva family patriarch more than two years ago.

Urban was now at level 53, Scott at level 52, and Oscar at the same level as before, 51.

But none of them were happy, even though their status would increase after returning to the family headquarters.

After all, that wasn't enough for them to cover up the fact that they had failed a simple investigation...

"So, will we leave for the Black Plain tomorrow?" Oscar asked Urban.

"Yes, but let's first visit the Rowe family tomorrow morning. After that, we will leave this place."

Scott then frowned for a moment and asked. "Do you want to get information on that matter?"

"Hmm, it's bizarre, but all the powers in that place have behaved differently for the past few months. I've heard that several noble families from that region have decreased their actions externally and started to focus on the Stone Island itself."

"It's as if a great treasure has arisen in that place!" He commented curiously.

"Hmm, and the biggest loser of all of this was the big families that run Farmland, who practically stopped doing business with most of the noble families in that state."

"They still export a lot of their items for sale to common people, but the constant loss of the market related to the nobles has been bothering them a lot. And despite being small, it's still considered a bad omen for them..."