The Rise of the Black Plain

Upon hearing Celeste's question, that person was silent for a brief moment while still observing their target group. 

The group was now entering that street, each person mounted on beasts that looked like tigers with orange fur.

And realizing that no one else was with that group, he answered that Lieutenant of the Black Plain Army. "Lady Celeste, there are six people in the enemy group."

"The two individuals who are targeted by us and four more people, who appear to be members of the Allen and Collins families." He commented as he observed the symbols on the clothing or armor of those people.

"Oh? It looks like they are preparing for something big..." The strongest of those three Stokes family elders commented this, as he thought that no one below level 54 would accompany a group with such strong people.

After all, in a battle where the strongest are near the end of the 6th stage, a person weaker than that would probably get in the way or be killed solely by the remaining attacks!

So, even though he was so far away from the targets that he couldn't sense their spiritual fluctuations, this man could tell that the group possessed a great deal of power.

"Yes, the bait seems to have worked well..." Celeste commented in agreement, realizing that this group probably wanted to eliminate the foundations of the Nash family in one fell swoop.

The Nash patriarch and the elders who had accompanied him were outnumbered by that group that Celeste's team was watching. Because of this, this woman realized that the opposing side was acting in the way she expected, trying to move towards where those baits were, with enough force to exterminate them.

Minos and Elen had planned for the Nash group to start some operations in an area near this location, where this family's heads would act as if they were preparing for something in secret.

But with Allens and Nashs at war, it was practically impossible to keep the secret about such influential individuals leaving their headquarters. As such, the enemy side would find out about it sooner or later.

With that, Minos and Elen hoped that this plan would attract those crucial members of their enemy organization, who would be on a quest to eliminate the pillars of House Nash, the ones that would invariably be vulnerable in this place.

Because, although all of this was, yes, suspicious, the Nash family side had planned everything carefully so that the enemy side would realize that there were no traps nearby. 

They had not placed any spiritual array in the surroundings, as although it would have little effect on people at the end of the 6th stage, it could still cause some disturbances.

That was, of course, considering the arrays sold regionally.

After all, there weren't many arrays for sale that could deceive or even cause deadly problems for the Nash family's enemies. But, on the other hand, besides being expensive, these items wouldn't be that hard to spot.

So, even if they didn't want to draw the attention of their enemies, the Nash family wouldn't have used such a thing in the surrounding area.

On the other hand, the presence of Celeste's group in this location was enough for their enemies' investigators to realize that the core members of the Nash family were not here without lookouts.

But only level 54 and 55 cultivators were not enough to scare people at the latter part of the 6th stage!

So, instead of guarding against the enemy because of the presence of Celeste's group here, or even not coming here at all, the presence of this group had made this opportunity for action even more credible. 

After all, it made a lot of sense to do something critical and post lookouts strong enough to act.

Therefore, this plan had come to this moment, where the targets of Celeste's group were heading toward where the baits were!

"Well, get ready!" Celeste commented to those three in a low voice. "We will attack as soon as the other side reaches their destination."

Gulp!

"All right!"

And then the four began to move, following behind their targets up the street from where they could not be seen.

...

Meanwhile, in the area where the four Miller family prominent members were...

At this location, the patriarch and the three strongest individuals of the Nash family were inside a room in the middle of a mining area in that neighborhood.

Old Stone had many ores due to its natural composition. And even though the best ores had already been extracted from this area of the capital of Stone Island, there were still small mining posts around this city.

These were small outposts where only a few people extracted ores used to develop low-grade items. Because of this, even in this big city, in places more distant from the center, sites like these existed.

And precisely because this place was a little larger than the surrounding buildings, Elen had chosen this area for the whole operation to take place.

Anyway, some people were working nearby, but they were all members of the Nash family, who were there to keep up appearances.

Some looked like they were just mining, but others looked like blacksmiths building weapons.

While these people made it look like something big was happening in this place, the four individuals were talking apprehensively.

"Richard, can we trust this group from the Black Plain?" One of the two elders next to the patriarch and supreme elder of the Nash family asked Elen's father in doubt while sweating considerably.

He knew the risk of this operation to not only their lives but the fate of the entire family. As such, he couldn't help but question the supreme elder, the father of the woman who had put them in this situation.

The benefit of succeeding in this place was too great, which was the reason they were here. But with the decisive moment getting closer, doubts kept running through his mind, not only of this man but also of everyone there.

And then Elen's father, Richard Nash, level 58, answered in a sincere tone, "Sigmund, I cannot say for sure, since I have never seen these people in action. But the current Black Plain is indeed mysterious and cannot be underestimated..."

"Do you remember what little Elena did?" He asked as he looked thoughtfully at that person, level 56, who had previously asked the question.

"Yes, how could I forget..." Sigmund said after sighing, remembering that Elena had killed several Spiritual Kings during her recent passage through Stone Island.

They knew that woman was part of Minos' army and had Silver-grade techniques, which young Stuart had tried to use to make Elen another one of his soldiers.

And since Elena had fought side by side with the Nash family in the great battle of a few months ago, these men knew very well how capable she was just by joining the Black Plain Army.

That was why the supreme elder had used her as justification to claim that the Black Plain could not be underestimated!

"In any case, the people who are going to help us today are probably capable of doing the job, or they wouldn't even come to help us..." The patriarch, level 58, said something for the first time. "They have no obligation to it, after all."

"Then let's trust the plans of little Elen and young Minos." He said as he looked in a specific direction and noticed something. "They are here."

After hearing this, the others became even more alert, beginning to make preparations for what would come next.

"All of you, we have guests!" One of them shouted, warning the family members outside that room to hide as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, the patriarch looked in the direction of Richard's shoulder, where an arm was missing, and said. "Try to stay in the rear in case something happens."

Hearing this, Richard felt a little bad for the injury he suffered in the great battle of months ago. Such a thing had even taken the pleasure out of reaching level 58 in that period!

But he understood that being a burden was the worst fate he could have in this place. As such, he did not complain about the advice of Marvin, young Luke's father.

"Come on!"