The Rise of the Black Plain

One week later...

The war still continued around the Black Plain. Yet, with each passing day, more enemy troops were leaving this territory, heading back to their respective states.

At this point, all the major regional organizations already knew about the situation of several royal houses regarding the Black Plain. And with that in mind, the surviving leaders of these families and institutions could not continue to bankroll the war.

No, that would be like betting on the losing horse!

So even if some forces still wished to fight Minos, the situation was becoming unfeasible even for them as most of the regional powers no longer wanted to fight.

In this way, the Black Plain Army was about to achieve total dominance over this territory, something they had not had for years!

At the same time, the battles north of the Cromwell Kingdom and south of the Kingdom of the Waves were finally calming down, little by little making room for the consolidation of rebellions in these areas.

But while all this had developed since the Red Slaughter and Thomas' death, the Snow, Walker, and Stone families had acted vigorously in this period!

...

The central office of the headquarters of the Black Plain Army.

In this workplace of young Stuart's, he was sitting comfortably in his leather armchair, face to face with old Joey and Abby.

Joey still looked as old as ever, but Minos could see this man's vitality showing signs that it would soon improve, something that was expected, considering that he was already at level 49.

And considering the current situation of the Black Plain, close to victory in the war, that fellow could not help but look better than ever, in good spirits for the future.

"Young master, the Snow family has accomplished their mission." The hairs on Joey's white beard twitched amidst his comment as he looked and smiled at Minos.

"Oh? Are they already returning to their state?" Minos asked about that, not surprised by the other information about the Snows.

"Yes. After acting against the Silva family in the Red Valley a few days ago, they finally left the Brown Kingdom to return to their state."

"I see... That's better." Minos commented in a low voice, feeling satisfied that the Silva family had finally been eliminated.

Following his earlier order, the Snow Kingdom forces that were previously on the Black Plain moved on to seek the lives of the nobles of House Silva.

With such strength on their side and the Silva family in its most vulnerable state in history, the Snows had no trouble eliminating every single noble of that family.

They had eliminated all the stronger cultivators previously subordinates of that power. But on the other hand, even that family's crystals, cultivation resources, and spiritual techniques were all looted and sent to Dry City.

With that, even if some weaker subordinates survived the Great Red Valley Siege, it would be impossible for them to try to rebuild that family.

They did not have the blood, the crystals, the techniques, the resources, the territory, etc. They had nothing but their lives, which were also not valuable compared to the forces that had destroyed them.

Hence, Minos' issues with that family had finally been resolved!

As far as this young man knew, there were no more descendants of the Silva family in the Flaming Empire since they had all come at Thomas' call. And since Minos' group had eliminated almost all the reinforcements from that kingdom, the Silva bloodline had finally disappeared from the Spiritual World!

Knowing this, Minos was feeling a little better since this family would no longer bother him from now on.

"Well, the Red Valley previously was supposed to belong to my father, so it's nothing but fair if that territory merges into the Black Plain, right?" He smiled at those two, interested in that area of the Brown Kingdom, which was one of the best in this state before all the recent changes in the Black Plain.

Hearing that, Abby smiled at her fiancé as she had expected him to comment on something like that.

As for Joey, he knew about Minos' expansionist ideas, but he was curious about how they would proceed with it.

After all, the Red Valley was relatively far from the Black Plain. Unless Minos intended to 'digest' half of the Brown Kingdom, then he did not understand how that territory would join the rest of young Stuart's state.

"Will the Red Valley become a separate province from the rest of the Black Plain?" He asked in doubt.

Minos then replied. "No, that would be too problematic defensively."

"My idea is to absorb much of the northern border of the Cromwell Kingdom, going from the Red Valley region to the Farmland and Hadria region."

"At the same time, we will absorb the southernmost part of the territory of the Brown Kingdom. This one, in most part, represents the Red Valley and the region where the Parkinson, Austin, and Gill families were previously."

"We will take back the territories of our subordinates." He smiled, already imagining how large his territory would be at the end of the war.

Before the Black Plain's War of Independence, young Stuart's territory was only 200,000 square kilometers in area. But the Red Valley alone was already more extensive than that!

And considering the territories in rebellion south of the Kingdom of the Waves, north of the Cromwell Kingdom, and this idea of his, the Black Plain could quickly multiply its area by 6!

Not only that, unlike the Black Plain, which previously had virtually no population living in it, these territories all had vast populations!

As such, Minos was quite excited about reshaping the regional borders!

"So that's how it is..." Joey understood Minos' idea as he imagined the current map of that region. 'If this truly happens, the Brown Kingdom will become the only state in the region without access to the sea and reduce to an area about 60% of the current one.'

'The population loss should also be in the range of 20-30%.'

'The young master is truly ruthless...' He smiled, imagining the expression of the people in the Brown family when they found out about this.

Minos then looked at Abby and said. "Unfortunately, your family's territory is far from that area I intend to absorb."

"But don't worry about that. House Miller will have a good place within the Black Plain in the future."

Abby smiled at him as if to say that this was not important. She was already more than happy with the state of her family currently. So, the territory she had grown up in was unimportant.

On the other hand, the future dense spiritual energy of the Black Plain would not reach places too far from Dry City, like the old territory of House Miller. So, the very fact that her family could not return to that place was already perfect for them!

"Even if my family doesn't have a territory, we will already be very well off in Dry City..." She commented in a soft tone before finally talking about the issue she had to deal with at the moment. "But changing the subject, not only the Snow family has done as promised."

"The Stone family forces split into two groups a few weeks ago to deal with the situation in the Kingdom of the Waves and the Cromwell Kingdom."

"One of them joined the Walker family to annihilate the Reid and Collins families. On the other hand, the other joined the Nash family alliance and the rebels of the Cromwell Kingdom to exterminate the remnants of the Allen family and the Farmland families."

"I received the information from Lorelei Stone earlier today." She looked at Minos with a meaningful smile, pausing briefly. "All those families have been wiped out."

Hearing those sweet words, Minos relaxed in his armchair, feeling good that so many of his enemies and worries of the past decade had been dealt with at once.

At their current level, these families were no longer great things. But their combined power could definitely cause problems for the Black Plain. After all, he could not be in more than one place simultaneously, and revenge-crazed people would do absurd things to harm their targets.

Knowing about the resolution of these problems was music to this sovereign's ears!

"Very good!"

...