The Rise of the Black Plain

After stopping beside the body of that Silva family descendant, Minos observed him for a while, seeing the many cuts and bruises that had gone through the silver armor of such an individual.

'This bastard has caused a lot of trouble for me... I can't forgive the Silva family after that.' In silence, he thought about it, finally stooping down beside the two corpses to collect their spatial rings.

As Minos did this, it was not long before Jade approached him, carrying a bunch of spatial rings in her hands. "We collected these items from the people you eliminated." She said in a low voice as she stood beside him.

"Hmm, thank you." Minos nodded without looking at her, still lowered in that place as he checked out the items from those people.

They were the first Spiritual Emperors that Minos had eliminated. So, it was only natural for him to be curious about the 'inheritance' left by them.

'Let's start with this guy from the Silva family...' He began to probe that ring, but soon a contemptuous expression appeared on his face.

'That's it? Even regional Spiritual Kings would have more than that!'

Unfortunately for young Stuart, Clayton had used almost all of the Silva family's resources to pay for the assassination missions against him. And precisely because of that, the items in this person's spatial ring were ordinary.

There are things like grade-2 arrays and artifacts, many pills of the same rank, and some Warrior-grade medicines. As for spiritual techniques, Clayton had left a few Black-grade copies, but that was no big deal for the Black Plain Army, which already had hundreds of those.

Other than that, the number of crystals there was so small that Minos did not waste his time counting.

Instead, he simply started checking the spatial rings of the other two Spiritual Emperors.

And after some time there in silence, he still could not find any higher quality techniques than Black-grade ones.

However, he had obtained reasonable amounts of spiritual crystals this time, at least by regional standards.

He had obtained more than 100 million low-grade and 200,000 medium-grade crystals in those two rings. But, on the other hand, there were dozens of high-level grade-2 arrays, support equipment in there, and some low-level grade-3 pills.

Finally, when the items left by the Flaming Empire's peak Spiritual Kings were added to those left by Thomas, the total accumulated value was three times that of the two Spiritual Emperors.

'Nothing too impressive considering the origin of these people. But that will probably be enough for the Black Plain to bankroll the construction of Naval City-1.' Minos pondered this, finding today's earnings interesting.

Except for King Brown, each of the people killed on this occasion were just ordinary people in the Flaming Empire. However, they had lived for several hundred years and had accumulated reserves to use for step advancement opportunities.

Considering this, an amount that would be a great wealth in this region was easily collected from less than ten people.

Anyway, after he finished counting his earnings, as he looked at Thomas' corpse, Minos felt a little better because he had finally killed that king.

This person had escaped his clutches on several occasions and caused a lot of trouble for the Black Plain during the war.

Moreover, as the leader of the state that was fighting the Black Plain rebellion, Thomas was, in a way, the one most responsible for the war of independence.

Therefore, with his death, the regional situation could change more readily, and Minos understood this very well!

"Well, thank you for your cooperation, Jade. Your group was helpful on this occasion." He said to her as he rose from his place and looked at the people there.

Jade smiled in satisfaction and commented. "We only did the minimum to avoid more trouble..."

"But what will we do now?"

"Good question." He then walked toward his woman, who was still on Maida's back. "All of you," Minos said aloud to the descendants of House Carline. "I want you to stay in the region until the Spiritual Church removes the previous order." 

"That..."

"But what are we going to do? We have come to fight the war against you... Maybe we will do it from your side?" Someone asked in a low voice.

Minos then replied. "No. Instead of fighting at the end of the war, I want you to return to your state and take care of the situation in your kingdom."

"The region has suffered greatly from the recent power imbalance, with many families neglecting their territories to fight against me." He looked at Jade, citing the problems created by the regional families.

"Now, the Kingdom of the End belongs to me."

"However, I don't like the idea of having a messy 'house.'"

"Clean up my 'house' for me. Then, when I go to make my agreement with King Carline official, I hope to find that kingdom in order, ready to serve me." He said this firmly, without giving those people room to question his wishes.

Minos sought to restore the regional institutions' functionality and prepare the local powers to assist him in making a controlled migration to the Black Plain.

After independence, he knew that millions of people would want to join the state that 'single-handedly' won the entire region. After all, the strongest places always became the richest and thus were the best opportunities for cultivators of all backgrounds.

However, as much as Minos always had problems with the lack of people in his territory, this did not mean that he would open his 'doors' to millions at once!

No, it would be impossible for the Black Plain to absorb so many people at once, considering the production power of only Dry City.

After all, these migrants would not come to the Black Plain to work for free!

As such, he needed institutions outside the Black Plain that were strong and operational to make such a thing work.

Hence his earlier order.

"How much time do we have for that?" Jade asked in determination.

"One year." 

"After that, I will go to your state capital to sort it out." He said as he winked at her, making Jade shiver at the thought of already having a 'date' set with Minos.

"Alright, we'll do that!" She expressed before finally saying goodbye.

As that group took off toward the north, Abby approached Minos with an accusing look. Still, she did not talk about how sinful his relationship with Jade was. 

Abby obviously knew about how Minos had already conquered Jade's body since, as his wife, it was effortless for her to recognize strange smells on his body.

And as much as she thought it was immoral, she did not blame Minos.

After all, whose fault was it but Jade's own? She was the one cheating on her own husband!

Minos had the option of not doing something so immoral, of course. But at the end of the day, everything depended on Jade. She was the one who decided whether to cheat or not!

With that in mind, Abby despised that woman but did not judge her man so much.

"My love, what shall we do now? Shall we look for the other groups?" Abby asked as she hugged Minos' right arm.

She was pretty pale right now as her energy reserves had been depleted in the previous fight. But she was still able to stand beside Minos and be more concerned about what to do now than her rest.

"Let's go back to Dry City."

"In a few days, Blake and Wilfred's group will visit us to complete their agreement with us and have the execution of Charles Walker."

"After that, I will be able to use the Snow and Walker families to help me eliminate some problems..." He thought about the remnants of the Silva, Collins, and Reid families.

He still had to deal with the Brown and Cromwell families. So, he did not personally intend to deal with those houses.

With that, he was ready to use his subordinates!

"Well, come on!" He picked her up on his lap and carried her over Maida's back, making that woman laugh aloud as Maisie and Ruth approached that area.

After a brief conversation between the parties, they set off toward Dry City!