The Rise of the Black Plain

While that woman calmly chased that group of people traveling towards the north of this continent, a whole day passed.

At this moment, the sun was directly above the horizon of the Dry City.

The city was calm as usual, and in the little more than a day since Minos and Celeste's fight, this woman had already begun to work in the local agricultural fields.

However, considering that woman's tremendous power, even wearing a collar that sealed her cultivation, she still had physical strength equivalent to a level 41 cultivator at full force!

And with such strength, she could do a lot in the agricultural fields, transporting, harvesting, in short, doing the many jobs that were naturally involved in the production of spiritual food.

Obviously, it was a waste to make a Spiritual King already at level 54 do that kind of service, but Minos had no choice. After all, with the strength of that woman, the only one who could stop her was the local sovereign himself...

But Minos didn't have time to be Celeste's guard, nor to put up with any trouble she might cause..

He also couldn't just think that she would behave, just because of the fight they'd had earlier, or because she couldn't leave this town due to the defensive barrier of this place.

That's because, unlike almost the entire population of the Dry City, who were basically humble people from different parts of this region, people who wanted to work hard for the opportunities they had gotten here, Celeste's case was very delicate.

This woman had been raised in a context with many cultural influences that could be problematic for her inclusion in the Dry City. Especially those related to high-level nobles.

Noble and 'high-nosed people' were not known for humility but rather for arrogance. What's more, culturally, they did not see themselves as equal to ordinary citizens, not even those from rising families...

And all this combined with a high individual power could generate unnecessary friction...

However, that wasn't even the main point of Minos not trusting Celeste. What bothered him most was the fact that she was unfaithful!

He naturally didn't care about other people's private lives, and he certainly didn't care about his soldiers' love histories. But when it came to matters that could affect his life or the existence of the Black Plain, Minos couldn't help but be annoyed by people like Celeste.

That's because, in his opinion, such people would already be predisposed to betray a second time, a third, a fourth, and so on. And it didn't matter that she was like that when it came to love affairs.

For Minos, if Celeste was capable of doing what she did, why shouldn't she be able to harm the Black Plain somehow?

That could even be very difficult to happen, as the local security could already be considered very good. However, Minos was under no illusion that he was invincible and that people would not find ways to circumvent his security schemes.

For all that, he couldn't believe she would follow his orders. After all, he might be stronger than she was, but for now, that was just a tiny difference!

The fear, or the respect she had for him, was certainly far from the level where dangerous thoughts could be avoided.

And he wasn't about to take any chances with this woman.

Usually, this young man would be willing to take certain risks, as long as there were necessary benefits to his project and that those people he invested in were committed to such a thing.

But the risk Celeste brought with her was far from what he would accept. Hence, he would only receive this woman into his power through a Soul Contract, something that would limit her actions.

So, until that was resolved, Minos wouldn't mind wasting Celeste's potential by doing her work in the local fields without having the right to cultivate and grow stronger.

Anyway, but even though she lost the bet to Minos, she would be paid for all the work she would do!

But while Celeste's situation was somewhat harsh, this woman's partner had already signed his Soul Contract with Minos and joined the Black Plain Army.

That had been very easy to accomplish, as the local army already had a spiritual judge of the classification needed to validate such an agreement!

So, a few hours after talking to Minos about what would be in the contract, quickly the person needed for such a thing had presented himself at the office of the local sovereign and done his service.

After that, Minos' old acquaintance had received permission to join the army the next day. Today.

...

After Neal completed his registration, he immediately learned the basics of the headquarters, such as the library, cultivation tower, fighting arena, reward's hall, etc.

He had been amazed by all of this. Still, because several medium-level grade-2 arrays were defending the entire city, he hadn't been as surprised as the people in Abby's group had been back then.

After all, if one could afford such a defensive structure, then all of this in this headquarters was just considered to be average...

But he had become very interested in the various divisions that already existed in this organization.

Obviously, the Elite Squad was what caught Neal's attention the most, given the incredible conditions involved. Yet, several others caught this young man's attention, as they were not very common to be found in noble families.

For example, the divisions of intelligence, administration, formation of leaders, and others that he had been introduced in that place.

And it's not that there weren't people for spying, management, and governance in the noble families. There were!

The problem is that there was no compartmentalization of these areas in this type of organization, as happened in the army of Minos.

Some people learned techniques or knowledge aimed at a specific specialization or activity, but this was done informally, as in the case of masters and disciples.

A master who had become a spy would naturally teach his abilities to his disciples, and they would do the same in the future. And that was basically how big families operated.

It was unusual for a noble family to have a division to train leaders.

No, such a thing was naturally taught to all nobles the basics about the management of territories, and those who were most interested in the subject and had special skills would be those who would govern in the future.

But there was no class officially focused on this, nor were there general criteria for what is expected of the future leaders of these families.

However, in the army of Minos, there was!

Future leaders could join this division, and in it, they would have to prepare themselves according to what can be acceptable and what cannot be in the Black Plain.

The leaders would eventually change in a noble family, and the rules and standards could also vary. For example, power could start using slave labor due to the change of leader.

But in Minos' scheme, such a thing would not happen since no matter who would rule the Black Plain cities; the rules would have to be the same.

If any soldier could not follow Minos's ideas for the Black Plain, he would simply lose any chance of ruling cities in the Black Plain or army posts.

And so it was in all the other divisions. They had been structured in such a way as to preserve the ideals and objectives of this organization so that there would be no instabilities due to occasional changes in leadership.

As a result, Neal had become interested in these divisions, which in his view, seemed a more efficient way to develop an organization.

'This is interesting!' He thought about it as he headed toward his first local responsibilities. 'With such planning, he is certainly trying to reach a point where the state can remain strong or even strengthen even more, even in his absence!'

The creation of organizations and their continuity was dreamed of by many in the Spiritual World. However, most failed in this mission, as most of these powers were overly dependent on their founders.

That was a problem that, in a way, was related to the desires that many leaders had, to be the strongest, unique in their positions.

But Minos didn't see it that way, as he would be content to have many people on his level. That's because, for this young man, it didn't make any sense to build something dependent, which would wither away after he left for another place...

'What is the point of creating something weaker than me? If my creation is to wither after my departure, I'd rather not even create anything!' He had thought about it.

He wanted to develop the Black Plain, so he wanted his territory not to depend on his strength but somewhat be even more powerful than him!