The Rise of the Black Plain

At the end of that day, Minos was finally leaving Albano to visit Blackrock, the furthest state in his journey.

But before he left that Albano capital city, more than 100 Spiritual Saints had appeared at the local teleportation plaza to bid him farewell and wish him good luck in Blackrock.

Many local leaders had heard that Minos was in their city handling business with the queen, so they tried to interact with him somehow.

Minos was now much more powerful than everyone in this city and could easily annihilate them if he wanted to. So they thought it was best to demonstrate their favorable position to Emperor Stuart by appearing to greet him.

He had already met with local patriarchs and matriarchs for talks and business in the previous hours. However, many others have not had the chance to do the same.

So as he walked alongside Iris and Joan to the teleportation port, he greeted many of these individuals.

"Your Majesty, bon voyage. I hope those hardheads from Blackrock don't make things too difficult for you." A level 75 woman said as she shook one of Minos' hands.

He nodded to her and smiled, moving on to the next person, the last one he had to greet before he left.

He had no obligation to be courteous to anyone there. But it was not bad to keep doors open. After all, one never could tell what kind of trouble would come next and who they would need to keep growing.

As someone who liked having allies more than enemies, Minos saw no problem in using this chance to show these people that he was not an intolerable monster.

"Your Majesty, I will soon visit Dry City to send gifts and try new business with your empire." An old fellow said, smiling. "I heard that Princess Sarah is already not far from starting her journey in cultivation. So I will take the chance to bring some gifts to her too."

"Hmm, I'm sure she'll like it." Minos shook one of that fellow's hands.

After that, he turned to the two most important women in the West family and said. "Well, that is all. Now I will travel to Blackrock and then to the Flaming Empire."

"You should take care of yourself when you get to Blackrock. Those people will have figured out what happened by the time you get there." Joan suggested, knowing that it would take Minos a few days to reach that state's capital.

Among the four enemy territories of the Flaming Empire, some were closer to others by different measures. That was not only something geographical but also political.

For example, Vogel had never been very close to Albano, which was why Abe Vogel had used the state of Iris West to try to attack the Black Plain several years ago.

But Rosser and Albano were very close, and the two queens were even friends. Because of this, there were more teleportation ports between these two states than between Vogel and either of them.

Minos had only teleported to Rosser so quickly because he had army posts in the area. After that, he used the teleportation ports of Albano and Rosser to travel.

But now that he would be going from Albano to Blackrock, two states not so close politically compared to the situation of Blackrock and Vogel, he would have to fly for much more than he could teleport.

Then by the time he arrived in that city, the royal family of Blackrock would undoubtedly have the latest news from Vogel.

"Hmm, I'll be careful." Minos smiled before listening to Iris.

"Well, good luck on your journey. I hope everything works out for the empire, and we can grow in peace."

"Yes, that will happen."

With that, he entered the teleportation array in that square, soon after disappearing to the relief of those most pressed by his presence.

"Sigh!"

"He's finally gone..." Joan commented as she remembered her sister, who had not gone through the same pressure of being around Minos since she was in seclusion.

Lulu had finally reached level 69 over a year and a half ago and was now trying to advance to the next stage. As such, she was no longer in Minos' territory representing her family in the empire.

After sighing and starting to walk back to the royal palace, Iris commented to her daughter. "Hmm, now we can only commit to him and hope he succeeds... That's the only way we can grow too."

...

After departing from that city, Minos soon reached the most extreme point of Albano, on the border with this territory, Blackrock and Flaming Empire.

There, in the vicinity of the battlefield between those two kingdoms and the empire, Minos flew towards that battle lane without caring about the men on all three sides watching the area.

Some were fighting, as the Flaming Empire was still keeping pressure on the borders to fulfill the agreement between Minos and Harold.

As such, several attacks from low and mid-level Spiritual Saints circled the surroundings while Spiritual Emperors were also fighting in the area.

Minos ignored everyone and flew into the middle of that war zone, using his techniques to repel all the attacks coming his way.

While Chaotic Gravity repelled the physical attacks, the spiritual attacks were absorbed by him, giving Minos more power to fly toward his goal.

There were no teleportation ports other than those of the royal army for about 500 kilometers into this territory. So Minos would have to fly to the first city in this area with a teleportation port that offered this service to people who paid.

Amidst his haste flying through that area, those involved on the sides of the conflict began to pay attention to Minos, shocked at how a level 70 Spiritual Saint could be so fast flying but also withstanding their attacks.

"Who is that? How can he be so powerful?" A Spiritual Emperor ignorant of the latest news wondered as he looked at Minos.

But some of the Spiritual Saints in the area could recognize who that person was and soon began shouting to their respective groups.

"Fall back!"

"Retreat! I said, retreat!"

"Fall back immediately! Stop launching attacks and return to camp!"

Several similar shouts broke out on all three sides of that border, with the experts there fearing that Minos would act against them because of this great lack of respect.

How could they continue fighting in the presence of Minos, someone capable of defeating dozens of Spiritual Saints on his own?

Someone like that deserved everyone's respect, and immediately the strongest ones stopped fighting, retreating as they looked in Minos' direction.

Meanwhile, the Blackrock experts had ugly expressions on their faces, feeling bad that Minos was flying straight into their territory.

"Immediately, send a message to His Majesty warning that Minos Stuart is probably heading for our city!"

"We don't know his intentions, but they must not be good after what happened in Vogel!" A level 76 man shouted to his men as he flew toward the camp of his forces nearby.