The Rise of the Black Plain

After entering that body of water, Minos only had to manipulate a little of his respiratory organs to become fully accustomed to the underwater world.

Small membranes appeared at the sides of the base of his neck, and inside his nose, a membrane appeared to protect his lungs from water ingress.

He breathed underwater in a few seconds through these simple changes, swimming after that beast.

First, they went down for several meters in that area, which was somewhat narrow. But soon, they reached the bottom of that body of water, where there was a wider space below the rocks that held the surface ground.

Minos saw the great beast showing him the way through that place that was not at all dark due to underwater plant roots that shone like stars.

Because of these organisms, Minos could see tens of kilometers away from him in this grand underwater place where people on the surface would not imagine how much space there was there.

But Minos had an idea of this earlier since he knew that the underwater life in the Spiritual World was even richer and more diverse than on land.

There was much more space underwater in this world than on land, and most humans could not stay long in the water.

Of course, these inhabitants had developed much further than the terrestrial ones, where the humans of Minos' race had dominated the land and destroyed countless races and environments.

Minos could see this in front of him as he swam around, seeing various types of fish swimming in the surroundings, from small level 30 organisms to even 8th-stage beings.

The only Spiritual Sage in the vicinity was the giant serpent in front of him, the lord of this area.

Because of this, Minos saw several of the stronger organisms in the vicinity stopping what they were doing nearby to stand silently, watching their leader pass by.

But given their speed, they were soon in front of a huge coral reef, which was so large that it was 50 times the size of Minos' mansion in Dry City.

There, that creature entered one of the areas that could accommodate beings as large as it, with Minos observing this vibrant place.

'The spiritual energy here is even denser and richer than where I was earlier...' Minos noticed this, promptly connecting this fact to how close this place was to the nearby spiritual root.

Spiritual roots lay in the depths of the Spiritual World. So the deeper one went in some locations, the better the conditions for cultivation.

The only exception was the floating islands since, due to the repelling factor of the underground rocks in these areas, currents of spiritual energy naturally flowed into the upper part of these places. The result was a place that was even richer in energy, even though it was not near the ground or the spiritual root.

Anyway, noticing all the plant, animal, and spiritual richness of that beast's palace, Minos saw some beings of the same race as his guide, high-level Spiritual Saints, approaching them and paying attention to that being.

"Elders of the tribe, I have some matters to settle with this human and will be gone for the next few days." She said to those creatures a little smaller than herself.

"Leader of the tribe..." One of the strongest beasts, level 79, tried to say something but was stopped from speaking further by that Spiritual Sage.

"Don't worry. I will return quickly. In the meantime, avoid trouble outside and keep our activities below normal." It ordered before seeing its underlings nod in agreement.

Among beasts, hierarchy was everything. That way, even suddenly appearing there to give a warning like this, that beast faced no resistance since it was the strongest and most respected in the tribe.

Minos saw that and asked after they proceeded out of that grand chorus. "What makes you think we won't be long?"

"One of those women will kill or overpower you." The beast said, certain about its premonitions. "When that happens, if I don't die too, I can quickly return.

In any case, a few years will pass in the blink of an eye."

For a beast like it, capable of living for over 30,000 years and who had already lived quite long, a few years passed quickly.

Minos could understand this without needing to hear more, and he smiled bitterly, sensing how little confidence this creature had in him.

"By the way, my name is Minos Stuart. And you? What's your name? You have one, right?" He asked.

"Maris." She replied before jumping out of the water from where they had submerged moments ago.

When Maris did this, her exquisite body suddenly glowed brightly and slowly began to change.

Minos jumped out of the water, and his body returned to normal as he watched the serpent's huge body transform into a 1.7 meters tall humanoid body.

The body was female. It had an extremely attractive and fit silhouette, slim waist, medium-sized breasts, and white, thick legs.

Her skin was white, with some tattoos that seemed to glow and be made of scales. At the same time, she had snake eyes, and her hair was spiky, as it appeared to be in her beast form.

But still, she was gorgeous, causing Minos to watch her intently in silence.

Beasts could transform into their humanoid versions starting at level 70, something useful for accessing small places made for human use.

Another use of this was inter-species copulation, something challenging to do in the natural formats of each species...

In any case, this was an ability that even Emlyn could use, but who had never done this since she liked her beast form. In fact, virtually all beast species preferred their natural forms and only used their humanoid bodies when they needed to interact with humans.

Since this beast would not subject itself to the humiliation of being used as Minos' mount, it had quickly transformed, giving him no chance to ask for it.

Minos could understand this being and was fully accustomed to seeing the transformation of beasts due to the creatures that went to the Black Plain with Little Green. So he merely nodded to it, praising it and asking it to show him the way.

The three Spiritual Sages watching Minos' movements saw this and continued from their positions without drawing too much attention, keeping everything they saw in their minds.

They were impressed by Minos' abilities to fight a Spiritual Sage without even using his special skill of stealing cultivation levels.

That was particularly true for the Spiritual Sage of the Eastern Empire, who had worried about Minos at the beginning of the fight with Maris but was now relieved, thinking how talented and lucky Minos was.

But with that beast's transformation and subsequent departure of her and Minos from there, the three would soon follow Maris' lead, who would show a bit of the easternmost area of the Flowers Kingdom.

The capital and most of the cities of this state were closer to the kingdom's western coast, so over the next few days, Minos would get to know much of the local plant and animal wealth without much chance of meeting the dreaded local women.

But this would not take long to happen!