The Rise of the Black Plain

A few weeks later, in the city belonging to the Gill family...

In the territory formerly owned by the Gill family within the Brown Kingdom, that organization was now governing on behalf of Minos those areas.

Not only were they slowly putting Minos' policies into practice, such as Blue-grade techniques for the ordinary people, but they were also making local improvements.

For example, in addition to the many Spiritual Kings that had emerged in the post-war period due to the release of Black-grade techniques to their subordinates, this family had also been improving the quality of local services.

That was an effort to ensure that the local population did not leave the Black Plain for other states and to decrease the number of those interested in migrating to the main area of Minos' territory.

Thus, many jobs had sprung up in these areas in the four years, many of them associated with infrastructure construction and the mining of local resources.

The Gill family was located in an area rich in various minerals necessary for producing grade-1 and even grade-2 spiritual items. Thus, considering the great demand for resources in the central area of the Black Plain, this place had improved dramatically since the end of the war.

As a result, people passing through the principal city of this Gill family territory could already see similar models to the cities of Minos, with well-paved, clean streets, with unique building models.

In this place that had improved a lot in the last years, Lionel Gill, former principal of the Black Star Academy of Dry City, was finishing with his advance to the 6th stage!

On the outskirts of the courtyard of Lionel's residence, young Ralf, who had given up joining the Black Plain Army along with Lee and Alison due to his father, was with this man, Railan, waiting for the advancement of that Gill family nobleman.

Ralf had reached level 42 after all these years, which was quite good considering he was only 24. But compared to Lee and Alison, he had fallen far behind, and there was not a day when he did not regret his father's choice.

Railan, on the other hand, had reached level 44 recently, a level that he had never imagined he would reach when he was a resident of Dry City. But, like his son, he also greatly regretted his mistake years ago.

Anyway, there was no going back to the past and changing what had already happened, so they were leading their lives as best they could along with the Gill family.

All of them, Lionel, Railan, and Ralf, had been penalized for ten years of labor in the fields of the Black Plain for having put the Gill family against Minos years ago. And despite all that had happened, they had not been pardoned and were still doing their work.

The difference was that there were only labor camps around Dry City before. But now, with the Black Plain having grown so big, they had been transferred to work at this Gill family site.

With this, even though they were Spiritual Generals and Lionel, who was about to advance to become a Spiritual King, would continue their unpaid jobs for a few more years.

But they had already gotten used to this life, and considering there were less than three years left for their punishments to end, they were looking forward to the future.

"Look at that. Mister Lionel has finished moving forward!" Railan commented to his son as he saw the physical improvements appearing externally in Lionel's body.

After a few breaths, a few liters of impurities stopped draining from that man's pores when he finally opened his eyes and breathed as if he had recovered from a long cold.

"Ah, it's magnificent to advance to the 6th stage!" He muttered under his breath, feeling accomplished at the moment.

"Mister Lionel, congratulations on advancing to the 6th stage and becoming a regional expert!" Ralf and his father said similar things, both happy for their leader's advancement.

But even if that was a happy thing as he had improved his vitality, Lionel did not feel complete. On the contrary, there was a strange feeling in his heart, as if after so much work, he had discovered that his efforts had only been for something ordinary.

"Sigh..."

"What's so great about becoming a Spiritual King? There are over 2,000 of them in the Black Plain alone..." He said in disappointment, feeling the weight of being part of a powerful state.

Previously the northern region of the Central Continent, when considered in its entirety, had around just 3,000 Spiritual Kings. And since these people were well distributed over tens of millions of square kilometers, each Spiritual King was a rarity and could be considered a regional expert.

However, times have changed, and despite the many deaths in the Black Plain War of Independence, the region now has nearly 6,000 Spiritual Kings.

In particular, more than 2,000 of them were on the Black Plain, a place with only a tiny fraction of the regional area and population. In other words, this place's amount of Spiritual Kings per inhabitant was considerable, which no longer made these individuals experts.

To get an idea, five years ago, people from these areas still dreamed of being able to become a cultivator at the 6th stage. But after the appearance of several Spiritual Emperors, today, everyone dreamed of reaching the 7th stage, not the 6th.

To make matters worse for Lionel, his family, which had less than 20 Spiritual Kings before the war, had recently reached the mark of 52 cultivators at this stage.

For all that, his satisfaction at having reached this stage had been significantly damaged by contemporary reality!

'Sigh!'

'Ten years ago, this advancement of mine would have given me elder status and even guaranteed me great respect throughout the region... Now, on the other hand, I will continue to pay my punishment and at most become a high-level guard.'

'How degrading...' He shook his head as he sighed.

"Forget it." He said as he walked towards the bathroom. "Hopefully, I'll have a chance to become a Spiritual Emperor in the future. Otherwise, I will be nothing more than someone ordinary, even within the family."

The two individuals could not disagree with that and soon followed their leader.

"Sigh..."

'Lee and Alison will probably become Spiritual Emperors before I become a Spiritual King...'

...

While those three had their disappointments in mind, the upper echelon of that family was at the local government headquarters, dealing with the administration of their territory.

Just as Dillian had warned Mia, the patriarch of this family was trying his hardest to generate results, seeking one of the best positions for his province within the Black Plain.

Precisely because of this, as on the current occasion, he daily had meetings with the upper echelon of this family, consisting of him, level 60, and some cultivators between levels 57 to 59.

"... As I said earlier, we must focus on mineral extraction in our area. The main territory of His Grace has a lot of growth potential, and we will certainly be able to export whatever we can extract here to there."

"This will be our chance to get resources to invest in our cities and population!" A level 59 Spiritual King said this in a tone devoid of doubt.

Another then nodded in agreement. "Indeed. The main territory of the Black Plain has only 30 million inhabitants, but the total area of our state is already over 70 million."

"With those numbers, it is certain that the other provinces in that area formerly belonging to the Brown Kingdom will lose their populations. That means we will gain more consumers of our minerals in the main part of our state."

"Patriarch, that will be the quickest way for us to gain recognition from His Grace and thus, perhaps, obtain a territory within the main area of the Black Plain."

"Hmm, I agree." Liam Gill, level 60, said.

The Gill family had the current goal of getting an area, no matter how small, within the original part of the Black Plain.

The reason for this? Simply because with the recovery of the spiritual root of Dry City, that area of the Black Plain had already surpassed all others in the region in terms of spiritual energy density.

With that, to have a better future, something easier to achieve in a place rich in spiritual energy, this organization's core was trying its best to get a place in that area!

"Well, let's..."