The Rise of the Black Plain

After receiving the spatial rings from those two Spiritual Emperors from Maisie and collecting the storage items from the other three bodies, Abby ran toward Minos and Ruth.

Even though she was exhausted from the previous battle, she was more than happy that their group overcame such adversity without further casualties.

The only ones killed today by those people coming from the Flaming Empire had been those Spiritual Kings who had previously been guarding the outskirts of that camp.

Apart from them, all those who had actually fought alongside Minos and his group had survived, although some had suffered more worrisome injuries.

In any case, this had been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for those dozens of regional Spiritual Kings, who had previously regarded Spiritual Emperors as great experts, invincible, and enviable beings.

But in their first fight against such strong people, not only had they not lost, they had eliminated three of these individuals.

That was to give pride and strength of will for these people to continue on the journey of power alongside Minos!

And knowing full well how important this battle had been to the local forces, Abby was walking with a smile on her face, taking the 'rewards' of this confrontation to Minos.

"My love, aren't you curious to discover what these people left behind?" Abby asked just after reaching Minos' side.

Upon hearing that, he smiled and let go of Ruth's shoulder that he was using for support to take those five items from Abby's hands.

As for Ruth, even she was anxious to see what those people had left as 'gifts' to the Black Plain. After all, these were stronger Spiritual Emperors than those reinforcements from the regional families, people born and raised in the empire.

Because of that distinguished origin and the power of that technique used by Crispin a few moments ago, even Ruth thought she could see great wealth in those rings!

Minos then began to probe through the spatial rings of the level 63 Spiritual Emperors, leaving the best for last.

As he did this, he went on to say to the two. "Well, it looks like there is a fortune here..."

The eyes of the two shone with interest.

They particularly did not care how much crystals they had to pay for their expenses as they both had more than they needed in their lives. But, thinking about the Black Plain, they understood the need to accumulate as many crystals as possible.

That's why they were both interested in it!

Minos then said. "In those first four rings, there are 700 million low-grade crystals, 500,000 medium-grade crystals, and a thousand high-grade crystals."

"A thousand high-grade crystals?" Ruth said in surprise, not expecting that there would be so many crystals of that rank in possession of such people. 'Did they rob a bank before coming here?'

"Minos, that's worrying. If they had that many crystals, they're probably pretty important in the Saints Killing Sect." She said in concern, dismissing that absurd possibility.

"Oh?"

Abby then said in her fiancé's place, "It makes no difference what their backgrounds are."

"It's not like we could have avoided the previous situation... They attacked us, so we just did what was at our disposal."

She spread her arms and lifted her shoulders. "As for the future, naturally, we will deal with whatever comes our way."

Hearing Abby's manner of speaking, Minos smiled, realizing that his woman had already acquired parts of his ways of acting and thinking. "That's right, Ruth. It makes no difference."

"Anyway, let's leave a remark about these people in the army. Their families will probably seek revenge, so we must prepare for the future."

"Hmmm." Ruth nodded and said nothing more.

"Other than those crystals, we got many arrays, artifacts, and grade-2 pills, as well as three arrays and a half-dozen low-level grade-3 pills."

"Not bad."

Other than these items, nothing else caught Minos' attention. But that was to be expected. After all, those rings were from only four people who probably had not bought many items during their lives.

Hell, young Stuart himself had only bought two swords for himself in the last ten years!

So, for people who probably had lower cultivation speeds than he did, not having many items was typical.

On the other hand, even though looting against dead enemies was standard, and that group must surely have had their experiences in such matters, the most normal thing to do in such situations was to sell the resources at auctions.

After all, a cultivator would hardly need to have several arrays or artifacts with him.

At most, a person could use few items during a fight, so having more than necessary could be a waste of resources and space.

Therefore, aside from people with organizations to worry about, most cultivators in this world would rather have crystals than many items in their spatial rings.

The only items that had less appeal when it came to selling were those that could save lives, as in the case of pills. But even these were constantly used or lost their effects due to the progress of their owners.

The same was true of medicines.

With that, Minos was not bothered by the numbers of those items, already finding it extremely good that there were grade-3 resources among the 'prizes' of his victory.

"There are also two dozen copies of Black-grade techniques and one Silver-grade technique!" He smiled, feeling that those people had indeed left him a good offering.

"Silver-grade technique?" Abby opened her mouth in surprise, seeing one of those coming from someone other than Minos for the first time in her life.

After that, Minos focused on the ring left behind by Crispin, the enemy leader. "The difference between levels is terrifying..." He muttered as he realized the wealth left by that person.

"Three Silver-grade techniques!" Ruth was surprised to see the three silver scrolls in Minos' hands.

"Hmm, and the rest of his ring was almost half as valuable as those of his four companions..." Minos smiled at Ruth before making a joke. "I wonder if he was stealing from them?"

After that, the three talked for a bit while Minos transferred most of those resources into a single ring and handed it over to Abby to handle their division.

Some of that would go to the soldiers involved in today's battle, while some would stay with the Dry City government for the future development of the Black Plain.

But some of those items, mainly the grade-3 and high-grade crystals, Minos kept in his own storage item.

Not only that, he had seen a map in that ring of Crispin's and decided to keep it in case it might have some use for him in the future.

Now that he had already decided to stand against those people's sect, all information concerning them was of great importance to this sovereign.

In any case, he did not intend to set foot outside the region before reaching level 60, so he simply put those things away and left a mental note for the future.

...

Two days later...

After the previous troubles, things in Dry City had more or less returned to normal, with those involved in yesterday's decisive battle beginning to return to their routines.

However, after experiencing how strong her son and his soldiers could be fighting together, Maisie was assured that she was no longer needed there.

Previously she had stayed in this place due to Gloria but then stayed to see how Minos would take on groups from outside that region. But now that she saw that hardly anyone paid by the Silva family could easily defeat him, she no longer felt needed in this place.

As such, upon waking up earlier today, she promptly prepared to return to the Flaming Empire, from which she had been away for longer than she would have liked.

She had many questions in mind, but her relationship with Minos was not yet good enough for her to question him. So she did not ask him anything about the shield he had used previously.

And just like that, she and Ruth were outside the south gate of the local wall, finishing saying goodbye to Minos' group.

"Have a good trip, Miss Maisie. Next time you come here, the Black Plain will already be a great state!" Dillian laughed out loud, feeling that there was no error in his prediction.

On the other hand, while Minos' butler was talking to that woman, this young man was hugging Ruth, talking to her.

"Are you sure you will go back with her? I thought you were going to stay here longer." He asked in her right ear.

Ruth continued hugging him and said in a decided tone. "Next time I see you, I want to finally be able to stay here with you and Abby and be a part of your life."

"So now that we are engaged, I will settle my affairs with the Spiritual Church so there will be no problems for us in the future."

"I see..." Minos sighed, but he thought that things would work better that way.

After that, those two women quickly took off from that place, leaving Dry City and those people behind.