The Rise of the Black Plain

"... Those people from Albano keep entering our territory through the Red Valley. There are reports of hundreds of Spiritual Kings coming from that kingdom into our state." Eliot said this as he observed the man who had gained an even more remarkable appearance after his advancement.

Minos was currently in his 29s, 1.9 meters in height, with large and well-defined muscles, but without being exaggerated to look strange. And with this, his face was already much more refined, showing an appearance that no longer had anything of the young man just coming of age.

And with his advancement to the 7th stage, he had improved his qualities, reaching a level of attractiveness that could place him first in the entire region.

Something similar had happened to Ruth, who had been amazing before, but whose current version seemed to humiliate her previous one.

Finally, Abby, who was also in her father's field of vision, was still struggling to reach that stage, being at level 59, still much like her previous version from when she had become the queen.

Anyway, Minos listened carefully to his father-in-law's words since this was indeed one of the two major problems of the Black Plain today.

After independence and the royal wedding, the Black Plain went through a period of peace, which lasted 18 months. During this time, no one had come from outside the region to cause trouble for them, and both this territory and the rest of the region had developed quietly.

However, after this interval of time, problems began to arise. Among them was the problem concerning the neighboring kingdom, Albano, which bordered the Black Plain through the Red Valley area.

From this state, groups of Spiritual Kings had been trying to infiltrate the Black Plain for various purposes that Minos' government was not sure whether it was just a natural migration or something more.

In any case, the current Black Plain had over 2 thousand Spiritual Kings and 22 Spiritual Emperors, and the state was under the government's control.

"Hmm, I understand that such a thing is a problem, father-in-law. But for the time being, it's better to continue improving our forces quietly. On the other hand, Albano's strength is awe-inspiring, so for Spiritual Kings without many prospects in that place, it might be a good thing to come to the Black Plain or even other states in the region."

"Previously, the region could not attract the attention of outside Spiritual Kings because of its limitations. But with the possibility of advancing to the 7th stage even in this poor region, many will surely be interested in coming here."

"But if the situation escalates to dangerous levels, I will pay a short visit to that state." He said peacefully, but his words had a power that people in the surrounding area could not doubt even if they wanted to.

For those who had learned about Minos' 7th ability, these people did not doubt the destructive power of this monarch!

That was particularly true for Abby and Ruth, the only people who had ever heard about the card up his sleeve, the mass destruction weapon he had achieved...

Ruth then said. "But I don't think these people who have come to Black Plain so far are the problem we should be most concerned about."

"Those assassins who came here a little over two years ago are the most worrying." She remembered the situation that first brought the Black Plain out of peace when a Spiritual Saint had come after Minos!

Luckily for them, Dry City already had low-level grade-3 arrays at that time, which enabled that individual to be wounded and forced to retreat.

Subsequently, other attacks happened, but with the constant improvements of the local forces, the risk posed by low-level Spiritual Saints had diminished considerably.

With the high-level artifacts left behind by Henricus Longos, plus the half-dozen Spiritual Emperors that had already appeared at that time, the forces of Minos had made it through the many trials they had had up to this point.

In any case, that had been one of the reasons Minos rarely left Dry City in the period, having most traveled to his cities connected to the capital via teleportation arrays.

"Hmmm." Minos nodded in agreement with Ruth's words. "That is already under Church judgment, so as long as we maintain our position, it will resolve itself."

The Spiritual Church had promised to keep high-level monsters out of the region for 20 years, even if Spiritual Emperors appeared in those areas. Because of that promise, when the Church headquarters in the Flaming Empire found out about that Spiritual Saint's bold action, they immediately began investigating the matter with vigor.

On the other hand, in the four years that had passed, Maisie had come to this region three times to visit Minos and her former disciple. Because of this, Ruth had told her about the problems faced by her husband, which had caused the Gray Clouds Sect itself to get involved in the problem.

Because of those reasons, Minos knew that even if he did nothing, those daring people would eventually be eliminated.

"But anyway, if those people return, we will give them a nice surprise." He smiled as he remembered the artifact he had obtained through the Edwardstone family.

Hearing his son-in-law's confident tone, Nicole, currently at level 57, sighed in relief and commented. "Well, for now, let's keep our actions less flashy. When we have more Spiritual Emperors, it will be time for us to solve the problems generated by these enemies."

"Hmmm. Ms. Miller is right." Eda nodded while standing next to her husband.

This former subordinate of Miller House and Abby's bodyguard was already at level 59, one level below her husband, the attractive man dressed as a butler sitting next to her.

Dillian had become the first low-level grade-3 doctor in this region a few months after Ruth had reached the 7th stage. And at level 60, he now showed a youthful appearance, not so different from Minos.

Eda then continued as she looked at her husband and then at Mia, "Mia, Dillian, how are our numbers? How many Spiritual Emperors can we expect in the coming months?"

Mia, currently at level 51, then answered that woman. "Well, the army currently has over 300 Spiritual Kings, but less than 30 of them were between levels 58 and 59."

"So, the number of Spiritual Emperors we can expect for the time being is within that range."

"But I believe our main problem is not fighting against high-level cultivators." She said, presenting her point to those people. "It is true that high-level warriors carry great destructive power and are a threat. But few of them would be willing to come to the region or act."

"On the other hand, there are potentially millions of Spiritual Kings in the surrounding states of our region. So, I believe that problem is the main one." She looked at Minos.

After seeing his satisfied nod, Mia continued. "However, we currently have over 85,000 Spiritual Generals, with over 10,000 of them close to becoming Spiritual Kings."

"With that said, the numbers that truly matter at this point are still those of cultivators at the 6th stage."

Dillian nodded and said. "Mia is right."

"It's impossible for us to think about creating many Spiritual Emperors in a short time. But we need people at the borders and other cities in the kingdom to block the entry of these troublesome migrants."

"And it turns out that we have the means to produce tens of thousands of Spiritual Kings in a few years, even when we consider just the army..."

"So, if we look at this situation from that point of view, our situation is not as worrying as it seems." He said in an optimistic tone.

Abby then commented. "With the increasing amount of candidates able to join the army and the improvement in our funds, we will be able to solve this problem faster than we imagine."

"The army may only have ten thousand individuals close to becoming Spiritual Kings, but if we consider the data from the Black Plain main territory, that number increases by ten times!"

"So, with our current production capacity, these potential soldiers, and our allies, I believe we can handle Albano's migrants in less than two years."

"We just need to use what we have built up so far, and we will naturally achieve our goals."

...