The Rise of the Black Plain

Seeing the big blue screen opposite the entrance to the cultivation tower, Alina sighed with relief, smiling happily.

There were room prices on the screen, starting from people's rooms in the 2nd stage of cultivation, for 20 low-grade crystals per day. For 3rd stage cultivators, as in the case of Alina, the room costs 40 crystals per day.

As for those in the 4th and 5th stages, they would have to pay 100 and 250 low-grade crystals per day, respectively.

And as the prices that this place was charging were meager, there were no individual cultivation and training rooms for now. This was a way to lower costs. After all, a place like this was really too expensive to build and do the proper maintenance!

Because of this, the individual rooms would still take a while to be made available to the public.

Finally, Alina arrived in front of one of the receptionists at this place and listened. "Welcome to the Dry City Cultivation Tower. Have you already chosen what kind of room you will rent?"

Alina nodded in agreement and said. "I want a room for 3rd stage cultivators for two days."

Upon hearing this, the young attendant, who was wearing a green dress with a golden tree-shaped symbol on her chest, said. "Hmm, I'm sorry. But for now, we can only rent the rooms for one day for each person, and these rooms will also be shared with five other people."

"Therefore, we recommend that you come with friends or acquaintances next time."

"OK, it can be that way." She said in still excited. Although it was not what she had planned, Alina still had to work, so spending two days in a row, or returning here at another time, would not be so problematic for her.

After that, Alina paid the receptionist the 40 crystals and received a key with the number 2124, which was in a room on the second floor of this building where she was.

And it wasn't long before she climbed the stairs to the building, which was close to where the large price screen was.

...

After walking down a long corridor, Alina finally spotted her room, not far from the food court on the floor she was on.

Arriving at the site, there was no one else. After all, she had been one of the first to enter the cultivation tower.

She then opened the door to her room and saw a space of about 80 square meters, which was subdivided into a large area that looked like a dojo, a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a small space with six cultivation cushions.

'Hmm, these must be the places for cultivation and training the battle techniques...' She thought as she analyzed the place.

And it wasn't long before she sat down on one of the cultivation cushions and started her session.

'Let's see what it's like to cultivate in this place!'

When thinking about it, Alina immediately circulated her cultivation technique, of Blue-grade, while beginning to feel the spiritual energy in her surroundings.

She felt as if her surroundings were as saturated as she had never felt in her life.

The spiritual energy seemed so concentrated in this place that it was like a dense fog that prevents someone from seeing through a few meters away.

'Wow! This must be twice the spiritual concentration of the current Dry City! 'She thought with a slight smile on her face.

For Alina, who had never left this city, the spiritual quantity of this room in which she was already was very impressive. However, she barely knew that she was looking at the world from the bottom of a well...

Anyway, Alina continued to cultivate, enjoying the benefits of this place to the fullest. At the same time, she felt closer and closer to her progress.

And it didn't take long before five other strange people arrived in this room and started to cultivate, just like Alina.

...

As Alina advanced to level 28, many people had already managed to enter the Dry City Cultivation Tower.

The vast majority of them had the same feeling as Alina and were already cultivating happily in their respective rooms.

For these people, this was a new way to cultivate, and they were all thrilled to be able to cultivate in such a place. This was a chance for them to get stronger and have more significant goals in their lives!

Anyway, less than an hour after the place was opened, a man dressed in the uniform of the cultivation tower came out of the building. He then said it out loud to all the crowd who were waiting at the place.

"Today's rooms are sold out! Anyone who wants to enter and see our price list will be welcome. But anyone who is not interested in that, we recommend that you come back early tomorrow!"

Upon hearing this, many in the crowd made gestures of displeasure, profoundly regretting that they had not arrived a few minutes earlier...

'Damn it! I will have to wait for another day!' An old man thought to himself.

"As expected! But no problem, tomorrow when the sun comes up, I'll be here already!" Another person said in a low voice.

"Hey! Daisy, shall we take a look at the prices? Even if we can't do anything today, we can come well prepared tomorrow!"

"Hmm, come on!"

...

And soon, two days passed in the Dry City when the rumor of the cultivation tower had already spread throughout the city.

In the past few days, the people who had managed to get into that place were all pleased with this experience, which in the opinion of almost everyone, was the best thing they had ever done!

Cultivation was the main activity in people's lives in the Spiritual World. And because of this, increasing the speed of cultivation was the happiest thing that could happen in someone's life.

After all, regardless of what someone's goals were, having a higher level would help them to achieve it.

You want to protect your family, get stronger! Want to have lots of crystals? With a higher level, you will get jobs that pay better. Perhaps some want to live in peace... But even for that, having a high level was significant.

Problems often came to people. Even if they didn't want to or didn't provoke them, there would still be problems to get you out of your peace!

Anyway, the fate of most people was not decided by themselves. Almost nobody wants to die during their youth. Still, when faced with certain situations, weaker people would naturally be eliminated, even if they were totally peaceful and kind.

And even if they didn't die, it could be thrown into the gutter.

Considering Peter's case, because of his bad luck, in having met the third prince of the Kingdom of the Waves, the young subordinate of Minos almost lost all the good luck he had for being born with a Black talent!

If it weren't for a stroke of luck, having met someone who liked him and taught him some quality techniques, Peter would have had an utterly mediocre life, even though he had a great talent for the standards of northern Central Continent.

Because of this kind of thing, cultivation was seen as the focus of almost everyone in this world. Even if someone did not have high expectations, they would still strive to reach their maximum level.

This happened so long ago that it had already become a human habit!

They did not need to cultivate to survive, but their instincts told them to do so. This was a chance to live longer and live better!

...

Meanwhile, in a particular part of the Kingdom of the Waves, near the Brown Kingdom, a family was traveling together in two carriages, quickly following the direction of the Black Plain.

At this point, a tall, strong man looked at his son and asked. "Boy, aren't you going to tell us where we're going? We've been traveling for almost two months now, but you haven't told us anything."

Hearing this, a middle-aged woman who was standing next to the tall man smiled and said. "That's right, why don't you tell us that? Is this place dangerous?"

"No, mom, it's not dangerous. It is the best place for our family to live. There, our family will certainly be able to flourish. Even people with Blue talent are valued in that place."

"But since we are already very close, I don't think it's a problem for me to say. We are going to the Dry City, on the Black Plain." The young man said with a smile on his face. He had been keeping this information for two reasons.

First, his parents might not agree to come to this place, which was famous for poverty. Second, he did not want to risk this news leaking since Minos did not want this to happen.

This was the young Peter, who had gone out to bring his family from the Kingdom of the Waves several months ago.

As he continued talking to his family, suddenly, the carriage in which they were standing stopped.

Peter then decided to go out and see what had happened since they were traveling in the middle of nowhere, outside of the previously agreed travel schedule.

But when he put his head out of the carriage, the first thing that the young Peter saw was a group of five people, dressed in savages and with grotesque smiles on their faces.

It was then that the driver shouted out loud. "Mountain bandits!"