The Rise of the Black Plain

While Minos and Abby went to the Spatial Kingdom, various everyday deeds were happening at the headquarters of the Black Plain Army.

Among such activities, some of them had only become typical a few months ago, by the time many professionals from various spiritual specializations joined this organization.

Before this happened, there were no blacksmiths, alchemists, or other cultivators of specific professions doing activities at the headquarters. But with the arrival of these professionals, several new divisions had been created at young Stuart's army headquarters, where interested soldiers could learn these specializations.

Finally, even soldiers not interested in learning a specific profession were crowding in lines in front of the place where this specialization was being developed at headquarters.

That was the profession of poison masters!

For this profession, cultivators could gain the benefits of poison treatments to become stronger and improve their characteristics. But even if it didn't work continuously, that is, the more someone did, the lower the results, poison master patients could receive the complete treatment of these professionals, once for each classification.

For example, the treatment done by a low-level grade-1 poison master would only have a single use. After it's finished, it wouldn't do any good for a cultivator to do the same again.. The benefits could not be reaped twice if a patient continually tried to undergo treatments with professionals of the same classification.

However, after finishing treatment with a low-level grade-1 poison master, a cultivator could still regain the benefits of this area in the future. Such a thing would happen when that person had the chance to undergo treatment by a medium-level grade-1 professional.

The same would happen with the later classifications...

And of course, there was a limit to what level these patients would have to be at. After all, this was a treatment made with poisons, which could kill if someone wasn't strong enough!

But even with this setback related to the minimum level to do treatments with poisons, this did not limit this great specialization. That was especially true when it came to people with lower talents and lower-ranked Physiques.

Such people had more impurities in their bodies and souls. And even if this type of treatment could not affect the soul, the very fact of improving the quality of the body already helped a lot!

After all, with fewer problems to be resolved in the body, spiritual cleansing could maximize its results in the soul of cultivators that were leveling up for the next cultivation stage!

So, such professionals had soon become popular at local army headquarters, a place full of people with lower-ranking talents and physiques.

And despite this being an army service, the city police were also being given this opportunity. As a result, some of them could be seen in the lines near the rooms where the treatments were being provided from time to time.

In these places, there were about seven poison masters of different ranks attending. And from the seven rooms of that place, constant screams of pain reverberated, reaching the ears of everyone waiting for their turn.

That was to be expected for such a practice. After all, it was not comfortable being poisoned, and these people felt a lot of pain for most of the treatment!

At the same time, many toxins were eliminated at such times, and the smell of that environment had long since become an endurance challenge for the waiting soldiers.

'To take two steps forward, sometimes you have to take one step back.' Some soldiers had already popularized this thought in this place, as they passed through that fetid area...

...

Quickly a few weeks had passed!

In the interim, the army's groups of soldiers had already been fully formed and dispatched to the Maritime City, where they had already begun the investigative work ordered by Abby.

In fact, due to the numbers involved in this mission, more than 300 soldiers, these investigations had developed quickly, and several groups had already returned to the Dry City with their results!

However, according to estimates by Minos forces, it would still take a few more days for all the groups to return. Then the final part of planning the replacement scheme would be done, which was basically the training of soldiers who would replace the kidnapped people from that town.

On the other hand, as matters concerning the invasion plan for that seaside town developed, many other things had taken place locally. Among them was the change in the attitude of the mother-daughter pair coming from the City of Waters.

These two had quickly become accustomed to the reality of the Dry City and understood the potential of this location. After all, even if they were blind or ignorant, they quickly changed their minds after tasting the local foods and the already high-quality services available locally.

In fact, the day after they had both spoken to Minos, they had already returned to that mansion to declare their interest in joining the local forces...

Consequently, Viola had already joined the army and took advantage of all the opportunities such an organization offers. Meanwhile, Mirya could only grieve and wait for the four-months deadline for the medium-level grade-2 spiritual judge to be completed, and that person came to validate her Soul Contract.

But on the other hand, she felt very favored not to be in the same situation as the woman she had met that day, Celeste. This person had been living in this town with her cultivation sealed and working in the agricultural fields all this time.

Mirya could at least continue cultivating with her resources while she waited for the opportunity to get the army's resources. And knowing about Celeste's situation had somehow worked to alleviate the anxiety Viola's mother felt.

Anyway, in the meantime, this woman had sent a letter to her subordinates in the City of Waters, warning that she would need to travel for about four months and that in the meantime, the family would send another Spiritual King to replace her.

Someone named Eda, a member of the Stokes family...

As expected, those ordinary people who had no connection with the great names of such noble power had caused no problems. So, Eda was already quietly taken care of the City of Waters, while Mirya couldn't go back there.

Mirya had given this woman several hints not to make mistakes that indicated her fraud, and perhaps that could cause problems for everyone involved in it.

But overall, that place wasn't all that different from the old Dry City, as it didn't attract as much attention from high-level powers. On the contrary, as long as something strange didn't happen, most likely, that woman would stay the four months in that city without facing problems.

And at least for the time being, that had been the reality for Eda!

...

Anyway, at this time, it was hot in the Dry City, and even though the day had just dawned, the temperature was already around 30 degrees Celsius (86ºF).

Such climate was highly appreciated by the inhabitants of the northern region of the Central Continent, to the point that on hot days the population behaved in a much more cheerful and inviting way.

And, while it was hot in this region, with the sky completely blue, someone in that city might notice a small white dot approaching that town if they looked to the south side of the horizon.

That white dot seemed to be moving at an incredibly high speed, creating sounds of air being cut as it went.

And if one were able to see at such a distance, that person would undoubtedly be able to see that such a white dot was actually a great white eagle with an utterly yellow beak.

Furthermore, on top of this spiritual beast huge in size, there was a woman with black hair who could certainly raze entire kingdoms with her unparalleled beauty...

Anyway, as the wind blew across her face, this woman smiled as she saw her destination in front of her, the place to which she had been traveling for nearly two months!

'I'm coming, Minos!'