The Rise of the Black Plain

"Hint?" Minos asked.

"Yes." That level 85 woman shook her head affirmatively. "If these forces have sought you to do a search service, you must be aware of the two possibilities before you."

"Two possibilities?"

"Yes. The first is about you refusing the offer of the two so as not to irritate nor please either side. I believe you have already refused at least one of them, so that may be the best course of action for your condition. But the second possibility is that you choose one of the two sides and faithfully follow that path to the end.

Choosing one will greatly irritate the other side, and it will probably become your enemy.

So if you choose that, be careful not to visit the domain of that enemy side."

"But my territory is in the domain of the Church..." Minos commented.

"Exactly. You'd better choose the side of the Blood Triangle Pirates if you opt for either side. If you don't do that, you'll have big problems choosing the side of the Eastern Empire." She said.

"Hmm, that's true," Minos said, considering he couldn't remove his territory from the Church's domain. 'That's really complicated... I can't choose, or I'd have a kill order on my head.'

He then said. "Well, thanks for the information and tip. I believe I'll be able to decide based on that."

She looked at him thoughtfully and commented. "If you lose in one of the challenges to come, you won't have to worry about that... So if I were you, I wouldn't worry about it so much."

"Hehe, we'll see." Minos laughed, confident in himself. "But answer me one thing. Will someone other than the queen be able to give me Harold's freedom?"

"Princesses have quite a bit of power in the kingdom." That woman stated. "So if one of them challenges you and you are lucky enough to win, you can certainly ask for that man's freedom.

Any of them has enough influence to make one of our relatives give up that man."

"That's good to know, hehe." Minos smiled, indicating to that person that he could accomplish his goals in this state.

That woman didn't believe in that possibility and simply smiled in pity at this fellow. "Good luck."

With that settled, Minos would stay for a few hours in that underground part of the women's village he had stopped at, receiving no challenges.

He said goodbye to Maris and Emma at the end of the day before a Spiritual Sage opened a wormhole out of that place for him.

Minos had built a good connection with these two, so they did him the favor of drawing him a map for the rest of his journey since he still had more than halfway to the capital.

With that, he set off while the two went their separate ways, returning to where they should have been.

...

While Minos was traveling through the Flowers Kingdom, the Black Plain Empire continued developing.

But on this night, something expected by the local forces and by Minos finally began to happen!

In an area of the empire not far from Dry City, a 10-square-kilometer plot of land suddenly began to shake in the middle of the night, causing everyone in it to be on alert.

At the same time, the local forces noticed something strange happening, as policemen and soldiers began to leave the buildings they were in to check the situation.

However, some of the few Spiritual Saints around were the first to notice the phenomenon and were not slow to reassure that population.

"Attention everyone in the area. This place is about to become a floating island!" A level 72 Spiritual Saint roared, noticing the spiritual energy in the surroundings beginning to raise that block of stone.

Some parts of the Black Plain were composed of rocks capable of repelling spiritual energy and creating floating islands.

As the density of spiritual energy rose, the repulsive force became stronger than the weight of these clusters of rocks and earth, lifting entire islands into the skies.

That was happening right now to that area previously prepared for this by Minos and his people!

At the words of that Spiritual Saint, the weaker citizens with residences on that piece of land began to rejoice, imagining the spiritual and tourist advantages of living on a floating island.

Their land would become more valuable, and their cultivation would grow faster!

Because of this, the thousands of people in the surrounding area soon began to celebrate while the soldiers smiled, imagining the future of the Black Plain.

But today, this piece of land would only advance a little more than 20 centimeters, barely noticeable to the locals.

In any case, this process was only the beginning. More places like this would appear on the Black Plain as time passed, and the altitude above ground level of places like this would increase!

...

Two weeks passed as the first floating island in the Black Plain's central area gradually rose into the sky.

At this instant, Minos had already traveled quite a bit of the Flowers Kingdom after his farewell to Maris and Emma. But due to the various encounters with women from this state on his way and the expected challenges, he had not been able to travel for as many miles as he would have been able to under other circumstances.

But Minos was not dissatisfied with the way things were developing. On the contrary, he constantly fought powerful women due to these circumstances, which was great for refining his combat skills.

At the same time, he had won more than a dozen challenges in this period, acquiring more wealth for his state.

Minos had gotten a new guide to accompany him on his journey through one of the challenges he had won and was at this very moment standing next to a level 79 cultivator, resting on a local beach.

He had arrived at the coast of the Flowers Kingdom, where this state bordered the South Sea, the most tranquil ocean in the entire Spiritual World.

Despite its position, at one of the poles of the Spiritual World, from where someone crossing it could go from the Divine Continent to the Central Continent or, by diverting the route a bit, reach the Beast Continent, this was a tranquil sea.

The reason for this? Simple, the Marine Empire was located in this sea and kept everyone passing by too much on their toes to cause trouble.

The Marine Empire was home to the most powerful beings in the Spiritual World, the Sky Whales, which could have bodies as large as flying islands.

These beings were as talented as dragons, but their bodies were much bigger and tougher. Because of this, when one of these became a Spiritual Demigod, they practically became indestructible, and few could stand up to them.

Since several of these specimens dominated the South Sea, unlike the chaotic North Sea, this was a peaceful place, usually used by merchants who wanted to complete their journeys without problems.

Minos knew well who guarded these waters, and as he finished eating his baked fish, looking south, he couldn't help but sigh, feeling the urge to go to the Marine Empire.

'In the future...'