The Rise of the Black Plain

After arriving at his office and starting to analyze the day's affairs, Minos soon received a brief report from secretary Mia.

"Young master, I have an update on the construction of the city's wall."

"Oh? How is it doing?" Minos asked curiously.

He had authorized the construction of this wall around the Dry City shortly before leaving for the Cromwell Kingdom.

This wall served the vital purpose of protecting and hiding some secrets from unwanted visitors.

It had been designed to be about 15 meters high and 6 meters wide, going around the entire city. This wall had also been planned to leave an internal area of the town, which could accommodate up to 500 thousand people.

So, with this work, Minos planned to protect his territory for the next few years, while this place was not yet strong enough.

And even though there was not much movement of people arriving in the Dry City, which was less than 5,000 visitors a year, Minos still wanted to take certain precautions.

The city had grown very fast and could end up attracting the attention of even those who had no interest in coming to these areas. With that, the wall served to hide the city's new appearance. After all, it was not uncommon for smaller towns to have walls like these!

That way, no one would find it strange if Minos decided to do that on the spot. Since he had come to live in this region, it was not just someone coming to manage the place for a while!

And as for the farming fields, unless someone got close enough to the city perimeter, they wouldn't be able to see it from afar.

Unless, of course, someone came on a spiritual flying beast, as was the case with the young Ruth and her great eagle. But as for that, Minos could not do anything.

However, luckily for him, most of the spiritual beasts were not of the flying type.

Anyway, Mia continued to talk about the progress of the work. "The wall has already reached about 50% completion and should be completed in the next two months."

"The west and east sections of the wall were constructed first because the flow of people into and out of the Brown Kingdom is greater than the flow of travelers passing through here from other states."

"Hmm, this is good." Minos said in satisfaction. Although the work was taking longer than he expected, this was not wholly unforeseen. And such a speed of construction was not so bad.

"Okay, changing the subject, I want to organize the construction of two public buildings in the central region of the city. One will be a cultivation tower, and the other will be a large arena, with at least 30,000 seats for people to watch the fights."

"I want you to make arrangements for this, with the Nash family and the Cohen family store. They can help us find the right professionals for designing the cultivation tower and arena."

Dry City could not construct such buildings, as there was a need for specialists to project these sites. After all, these buildings had to be prepared to receive attacks from cultivators, fights, and training.

So, if it were ordinary-buildings, these structures would not resist after a few matches!

To design them, array masters, blacksmiths, and designs needed to participate in the plan of the building. The first provided the arrays that increased the spiritual concentration of the cultivation rooms, protected some structures that allowed the functionality of essential items of the place.

For blacksmiths, they produced high-strength items that could increase protection against the building's damage. Finally, the designs were like the engineers of the Spiritual World. They combined the arrays masters and blacksmiths' items in the best possible way, designing unique buildings, such as the cultivation towers.

But in the Black Plain, there were none of these professionals, so Minos wanted Mia to use his contacts to move forward with this project.

Mia then replied with a smile on her face. "Okay, young master. I will start doing this as soon as possible."

...

While Minos dealt with the affairs of the Black Plain, a new cargo had already arrived on the Stone Island, coming from the lands of the young Stuart.

This time, the merchant Elen Nash had decided to sell the food planted on the Black Plain in several different cities on Stone Island. This was a measure she had taken to lessen the attention she could receive.

That's because, after selling Minos' items last time, many families had been on the alert with the volume of business done by Elen. So, with that, she wanted to share her offer in many different cities so that these families would think that it had been a stroke of unique luck.

It would be effortless to find out about her business if she was doing it in just one city, as it had been previously. However, those powers would not pay so much attention to her if her businesses were fragmented in many different places!

At least in a short time...

And so, Minos' items were now being sold in about 30 towns on Stone Island, including the city of Portland.

...

In the civil port of the city of Portland, a ship had recently arrived at this place, leaving several passengers who had come from the Maritime City.

After finishing their work, the crew of that ship would have a day of rest in the city of Portland until they finally returned to the Maritime City.

At the moment, a good-looking young woman dressed as a cook suddenly took off her apron and left the ship to take a stroll through this city.

Upon seeing this, one of the crewmates jumped up from where she was and said, as she handed over a bag with low-crane spiritual crystals. "Hey! Wendi! If you're going out, buy us some fruits."

"Hmm, okay..." She replied.

That was Wendi, a woman that Minos had met on his journey to Stone Island. She was a cook for a Maritime City travel company.

Anyway, Wendi walked around the elegant city of Portland for a while until she finally found an excellent market to shop for her fellow travelers.

After spending time walking around the city, she finally stopped in front of a local. 'Hmm, Nash family market ... Let's see if I can find something good here.'

She entered that place, and after taking a few walks around the building, she finally found good fruits.

There were apples, grapes, and mango in that part where she had stopped. Each one looked outstanding, to the point that Wendi even felt a little hungry just by seeing them and smelling the fragrance released.

"Ahh! These fruits look very good... The price is also low!" She murmured in a deep voice.

After a while, she finally asked an attendant to weigh her some fruits. The young man then smiled and said. "Haha, you are lucky, miss. These items just arrived here. Otherwise, you wouldn't find them at this price for long!"

"Hmm, can you tell me from where it comes? I've never seen anything like this and at this price!" She asked curiously.

"Well, I'm not sure. Let me speak to my supervisor..."

After saying this, the young man went to the other side of the building while Wendi waited, eating an apple.

Chomp!

"Ehh?" She was startled the moment she bit the first piece of the apple. 'How can it have so much spiritual energy? Is this a fruit with a high spiritual concentration?' She asked herself with a surprised look.

The young Wendi did not know foods of this quality, as it was costly for her. But it was hard not to notice how rich the energy in this apple she was eating was.

'Did they get the price wrong?'

While she wondered about it, a middle-aged man approached her. At the same time, the young attendant had been dispatched to attend to another customer.

That was the supervisor of this Nash family store. He had been instructed not to say about the origin of these Minos' items unless customers were weaker and less talented.

And it wasn't hard to get a good idea of a person's talent, just by looking at their level of cultivation.

For example, in the 20s to 30s, as in the case of Wendi, if she had a Black talent, she should already be at least in the 4th stage of cultivation, even if he used a Blue-grade technique.

But if she was below that, and that was the case for Wendi, it meant that she most likely had less talent than the Black and probably had no contacts with any big family!

So, as soon as he saw Wendi, the man probed the girl's strength and then said. "Young girl, did you want to know where these items came from?"

"Hmm."

"Well, if that's the case, I can tell you that it comes from the Dry City." The middle-aged man said without changing his expression. He then continued. "I heard that these products were even cheaper within that city..."

"What?"

Wendi was utterly shocked to hear that answer. After all, she knew the reality of that place. 'How can this be? I thought...'

She was thinking about it when suddenly she remembered something. A few months ago, a young client had made a strange comment to her, which seemed to make no sense.

'Is that what he was talking about?' She asked herself out of curiosity. If that were true, it would definitely be worth living in the Dry City. After all, with such good food, even if she had a low talent, her cultivation speed would surely increase considerably!

'Hm, when we get back to the continent, I'll see if I can verify this...'