The Rise of the Black Plain

Zumm!

'Ow! Hell, I thought I was going to die.' Thought one of the soldiers to himself while a trickle of blood dripped from his left ear. He could hear a humming sound while he had a feeling of imbalance and blurred vision.

"Lathar! Lathar! Hey, look here." Screamed one of the soldiers, who had fewer injuries, to a teammate who was lying on the floor with a stunning look and blood running out of his mouth and ears.

"Hey man, are you okay?" The soldier asked as he looked at Lathar.

"Cough, cough. Ah! I'm fine, Kallus. I just need some time to recover from the shock." Lathar said in a weak voice and a pale face.

After that, the same thing was happening with the other soldiers of Minos. Half of them were fighting protector Philip just before the sacrifice, so they were more exposed to what happened.

Of the 11 people, five were utterly exhausted with few injuries. Minos was one of them. The rest suffered internal injuries, but nothing too serious. They would only need to rest for a few days and would be fully recovered.

"That guy scared me a little bit! Even though he was exhausted, he could still do all this damage to us." Said Pyke with a narrow look in his eyes. He had been one of the most injured in the group and was shocked by what had happened.

'Hmm, it was truly awful. I hope I will not encounter this type of enemy in the future...' Minos thought to himself. Even his defense technique, Indestructible Body, was unable to withstand the blast's damage, to the point where several bruises were visible on his body through his torn clothes.

"All of you, rest as much as you can. We will stay here until tomorrow. After that, we will return to the city of Portland. I will also give you the due rewards for this fight later." Minos spoke aloud to all the soldiers.

After hearing this, all ten people were happy to know that they would have time to rest and still receive rewards.

And while the soldiers were gradually recovering, the young Stuart started walking towards the bodies of the three people who had been killed previously.

He first went to Darell's headless body, which was a few feet away from the crater formed there. When Minos looked closely, he saw a silver ring on one of the fingers on Darell's right hand.

It was his spatial ring!

There were several types of spatial rings in this world, but the main difference between them was the storage volume that each could provide. However, even rings with lower capacities could be considered rare items in this region of the Central Continent.

Generally, in addition to the children of the great noble families in the region, having such belonging was only commonly seen in cultivators of the 5th stage of cultivation, General Spiritual, or above. That's because these rings were not cheap for those of a lower level.

However, it was not common to see people who have just entered this phase of cultivation having such an item. Many of these cultivators took years to buy one.

Anyway, Minos searched the remaining two bodies, but there was no spatial ring. 'Tsk, as expected… These two are just subordinates to the Silva family and were only at levels 41 and 42.' Minos thought to himself as he searched them. There were only bags with a few dozen of low-grade crystals, nothing that caught his eye.

He then walked to the crater that had been formed by Philip's sacrifice and started looking for remnants. This is because even low-level rings had excellent resistance and would not be destroyed in an explosion like the one that occurred here.

Minos then saw something shining close to the waterfall.

It was a spatial ring! 'Oh, what a good surprise! It is no wonder that he seemed to be the leader of the group!'

After collecting the two rings without owners, Minos sat on a rock next to the waterfall and searched the rings.

That was not a difficult thing to do, as the rings were generally linked to their owners' spirituality. But once the cultivator was killed, his belongings inside spatial rings could easily be 'recovered' by others.

Minos then decided to start checking the protector Philip's ring because he thought it's best to leave the 'main course' last…

'Hmm, here are 3,000 low-level crystals… Two techniques of Black-grade!'

'Wow! This guy should have good contacts within the Silva family to achieve such a thing.' Minos thought to himself as he searched the inside of Philip's ring.

He was surprised by the presence of two techniques of Black-grade because Philip was only at level 43. At this level, even having one technique of this quality could already be considered a lot for someone who was just a subordinate.

Albert Stuart himself, a subordinate to the royal family, had only three techniques when he was at level 51! And a person like Philip could take a few decades to reach this level, so his situation was quite unusual.

After a while, Minos also found three spiritual weapons in Philip's spatial ring, but they were all medium-level grade-1...

'I will give these weapons and techniques to the Black Plain Army. It does not yet have a good variety of techniques or a good amount of weapons...' Minos thought to himself.

After that, he started to check Darell's spatial ring.

'Haha, as expected, this Darell Silva was wealthy.' He burst out laughing when he saw the ring's contents.

There were 400 medium-grade crystals, 20,000 low-grade crystals, four Black-grade techniques, some grade-1 spiritual pills, and three high-level grade-1 spiritual weapons.

The patriarch of the Silva family was indeed generous to his son!

'Ah! So, that's why he can't keep bidding. He didn't have any more medium-grade crystals...' Minos thought with a smile on his face.

After that, he started to analyze the four techniques that were with the young Darell. There was one specialized in cultivation, two in attack, and one in defense.

'How peculiar, this guy had learned two attack techniques, being only in the 4th stage of cultivation…' Minos was surprised when he noticed this.

Such a thing was not expected since, at the lowest levels, learning techniques for different purposes was much safer than focusing on a single specialization. Only those cultivators who did not focus on battles, such as alchemists, used to have this type of configuration.

Among the warriors, like Minos and most people in this world, the common thing was to have a cultivation technique, an attack technique, a defense technique, and a movement or support technique when the cultivator reached the 4th stage of cultivation.

'Hm, this must be because the Silva family is a militaristic force that believes only in force. This must be why…' Minos thought as he snapped his fingers.

…

After a while, he turned to the group of soldiers who were gradually recovering.

He then focused on those who were most hurt and said. "The young master of the Silva family had five spiritual pills specialized in recovery. I will give them to you since you were the ones who hurt the most. This will help you to recover more quickly."

After hearing this, these five soldiers quickly rejoiced. Being able to use such a pill would recover most of their injuries!

"I'm going to give these two spatial rings to Sergeants Pyke and Lathar. But the rest of you will be able to get your rings when the Black Plain Army develops a little more and acquires at least an array master and a grade-2 blacksmith."

"It may take a while, but we will get there." Minos confidently said as he scanned each of the soldiers.

After saying this, he also gave the soldiers the spiritual crystals that he had plundered from the bodies of the young Darell's three protectors. There were just over four thousand crystals, which were duly distributed among the ten men.

It didn't take long, and the waterfall at which the group was standing fell silent again. At the same time, the eleven men cultivated peacefully in this place.

…

Meanwhile, in the Maritime City, a white eagle was standing outside the town.

At that moment, a young woman with black hair approached the beast and rubbed her hands on its neck.

"Come on, White. Now we are going to travel by sea. I want to see this Stone Island. They say it is a decent place near this northern region of the Central Continent." Ruth softly said as she stroked her huge spiritual beast.

She had stopped at the Maritime City to rest before finally crossing the sea. This was her first time doing this, so even though she was on a mission, she wanted to make the most of this trip.

Ruth didn't like being sent to a place with a spiritual density as low as this, but… Since she couldn't help it, she would try to enjoy this trip to the fullest.