The Rise of the Black Plain

"You missed it? How did you lose something so important?" That man said in a louder tone, almost shouting.

Minos saw the veins in that man's neck trembling and smiled bitterly. "When I was fighting one of those beasts, I was surprised by a terrorist attack by a man from the Eastern Empire. Then, while my opponent and I were trying to escape that, a remnant attack destroyed Spiritual Sage, my spatial ring...

Sigh, it's my great luck that only the ring broke, and I didn't lose my fingers." Minos looked at one of his hands, showing the relief he felt at this instant.

That man looked at Minos' hand and saw that there were some low-level spatial rings there, considering the cultivation of this person in front of him.

Minos had planned what he would say to this person since he knew how it worked to get people into cities like this. As such, he had sent his true spatial rings to the Spatial Kingdom and kept some lower-level ones, which he had saved from former opponents.

Only his weapons and crystals needed to pay for the ship he wanted were in these low-level items, which had enough to store that.

That man believed Minos' story and sighed for the work ahead. "Well, if that is the case, we must make a new ID for you. But that will cost ten high-grade crystals, and you will soon have to go to the Criminal Department to resolve this situation.

This identification I will give you will be useful only for 12 hours. After that, if you are caught with it, you can face a fine of 10,000 high-grade crystals and imprisonment for up to 50 years.

So I recommend you go immediately to the local Criminal Department."

Minos had expected to hear something like this and soon paid the crystals due, then gave that man the false data he would use to get this temporary identification as a local citizen.

After a few minutes of serving Minos, that guard of that. "In 12 hours, a group will come after you if you have not already resolved your situation.

Our men will also watch your movements, so watch what you do."

If anyone could enter a city in this territory using that method, living in this empire's cities would be extremely dangerous.

Precisely because of this, each person who used the Minos method would be watched by guards through the identification item they received. At the same time, secretly, there would be people watching these 'careless or unlucky' citizens to prevent terrorist attacks.

That usually worked, but even if it went wrong, as with this young man who was not supposed to use this method, there was nothing to be done. Citizens could lose their identification items, so a method of regaining the right to enter these cities was necessary.

At the same time, there were entry permits for tourists and merchants, who also had to be watched and could not stay long in the cities of the empire.

But this could only be obtained when one passed through border ports, something Minos had avoided to hide the tracks of his movements.

Minos didn't want to use this alternative because although his time would be shorter before he would get in trouble for trying to enter there as a local inhabitant, as a merchant or tourist, he would have to say where he came from and present proof of this.

That could create more considerable traces of his passage through this city, so he chose the option where he could act more secretly for the next 12 hours.

So after hearing that man's warning, he finally received an identification array, something indestructible to someone of his strength and a tracker with the ability to hear and send images of the surroundings far away.

'This place really invests quite a bit in its defenses...' Minos pondered as he passed through the entrance of that city, finally reaching the protected area.

Being inside that city, he noticed the quality of the buildings and the beautiful design of the city, noting that his city still had much to improve.

He had great designs in mind and had already used several of them in Dry City and other cities in his empire. But to raise the quality of these places to the maximum of Minos' designs, he would need skilled spiritual professionals, something his empire still paled in comparison to a high-level state such as this.

But he was already quite satisfied with what he currently had and knew that it was only a matter of time before his state reached the same level as this one or even higher.

But Minos couldn't help but open his mouth when he noticed the powerful auras in the surroundings of this city.

He had not yet passed through a city in an empire like this, where there were people of even level 98.

The Flowers Kingdom had only low-level Spiritual Demigods, so only in the capital and some of the largest cities in that state were people at the 10th stage.

But in the Western Empire, even cities with a few hundred thousand inhabitants would have Spiritual Demigods, sometimes even individuals in the middle part of that stage.

Minos noticed someone at level 94 in this city and felt the difference between this state and the Flowers Kingdom, as well as the forests he had passed in the Veora Kingdom.

'The state's capital must have dozens of cultivators like that...' He felt eager to visit that place, which was not far from there, just a few hours to the west.

Unfortunately, that would not be possible this time, and after arriving at one of the main avenues of that city, Minos soon found a local carriage service and asked a coachman to take him to a boat store.

So, in the blink of an eye, he stepped out of a beautiful red carriage in front of a majestic boat and ship store, which was close to the local harbor.

There, in this area that had an artificial bay, he soon entered the building of the main boat store of this city, which the coachman had recommended.

Minos saw that this store sold cargo ships and smaller boats, but he didn't bother to check these alternatives and soon went near the area where the available yachts were.

Immediately after he entered, an attendant from that store appeared to attend to him.

"Welcome to Exow Yachts. How could I help you, dear customer?" That attendant, a beautiful blonde woman, level 59, asked Minos with a beaming smile.

Minos looked at her and got straight to the point. "I want a yacht of any size, but one that is of low-level grade-4 classification."

Minos could buy a better quality boat, but it would be hard to find something like that in a city like this. Normally higher-grade items could only be found in capital cities, even in high-ranking states.

At the same time, a Spiritual Saint buying something better than that would draw a lot of attention, so he decided to buy a low-level grade-4 boat, something that wouldn't be so strange for someone of his level to have but would also be quite fast.

The attendant was pleased to hear this and then directed Minos to the area where the only three boat models that could meet this customer's criteria were located.

...