The Rise of the Black Plain

Looking at the people in front of him, Minos was trying to figure out what to do with these captives.

He could not simply leave these people here. They had witnessed the whole event, and it would be better if the Chambers family members who came by later knew as little as possible about what had occurred.

The Black Plain Army's soldiers were hiding their identities, but it was impossible to hide the techniques they had used. And with that alone, there would be a small clue, which Kevin's family could use.

As for the other people, who had either fled this place or those still around, Minos was not worried about them. They were captives who wanted to distance themselves from the Chambers or were members/subordinates of other noble families in the region.

But this last group had attacked a base of the Chambers family, and they had not gotten the Spring of Life. If only they could do this, maybe they would have all the protection of their respective families, but... Unfortunately, that was not the case.

With that, if these individuals wanted to live, it would be better for them not to be involved with the Chambers family for a long time. Even though some wanted to cause trouble for Minos, the amount of information they had was small and not worth the risk.

Because of all this, Minos was not worried about those pursuers going around talking about this subject. And with that, there were only those slaves who worked as servants on this base.

They would not fight enemies as they had, but they did not dare to flee this place. With that, if they stayed behind, they would surely be interrogated about what happened here and would have no reason to hide anything!

Minos then closed his eyes for a moment when he finally started talking to those people in front of him. "You are free, but you don't have the guts to run away. I understand. You've probably been tortured many times, and fear has already made you submit completely to your captors."

"But you cannot be left behind. If this happens, not only could my group have certain problems, but you would be tortured anyway."

"What do you think the person who gets to this place first will do? Treat you well and ask questions?" He said, watching the expressions of those captives.

'We'll probably pay the price in your place!' One of them thought to himself as he felt a shiver down his spine.

And that was most likely. The Chambers family was known for their violence, so it would not be now that they would change and stop torturing these captives.

No, most likely, when they arrived at this place, the reinforcements would vent their rage on these helpless captives, who would have to pay the price of being the only survivors...

Minos then continued. "I wouldn't mind if you guys had run away before, but now that I've seen your submissive behavior to the Chambers family, I'm afraid I can't leave you in this place..."

"You have two options here. Come with me and be my guests in my territory. Obviously, I don't trust you, so none of you will be allowed to leave there for the next five years. But your freedoms will still be guaranteed within my territory, and you will be able to live normally."

He then stopped and said nothing more as he watched those people.

And after a moment of silence, a woman finally lifted her head and looked at Minos. "You didn't say what the other option is."

"True, ehh, I better not talk about the other option. It's not good for anyone..." The young Stuart said vaguely.

He did not want to have to kill these people in cold blood since he did not feel any advantage about doing such a thing. Moreover, these were people who, regardless of origins, were victims of the Spiritual World's cruel reality and had no prior feud with him.

But Minos would do whatever was necessary to protect his territory, even if it meant massacring unarmed, surrendered, and weak individuals!

At present, Minos and his forces were not strong enough yet, so there was no room for them to risk that much. But, obviously, it was impossible to act without any risk. Still, he would try to avoid problems as much as possible, minimizing possible losses when he could, as was the case today.

As for the fact that he was not giving many choices here, this was not a kidnapping or a different way to enslave these people. On the contrary, he would allow them to live freely within the walls of the Dry City, working or not, following their wishes in that place.

He just would not allow them to leave his territory because he was afraid that one of those captives would try to return to the Chambers family!

And such a thing would be terrible!

But in 5 years, Minos would be capable of handle any problem in this part of the Central Continent, but he still had to be discreet for now. Hence, just preventing these people from leaving his territory for that period was the most that young Stuart could do for these people, without compromising or making their situation worse.

After hearing Minos's response, swallowing sounds sounded around the place as those captives made their decisions.

They were afraid of the Chambers family, very afraid, so much that they did not dare to flee this place. But they were also cowards, each of them was more afraid of dying than anything in their lives...

'If I stay here, I'll suffer anyway, and maybe I'm unlucky enough to die during torture!' Some of them had such a thought in their minds.

'I better become a prisoner than a corpse!'

"I'm willing!"

"Me too."

...

And so, quickly, they all made their decisions.

None of them had chosen to stay... They still felt a shiver down their spine as they were about to flee this place, along with Minos' group, but...

Well, the enemy in front of them was scarier than the one they did not see!

Consequently, there was not much to do here. For people like these captives, as long as there was a chance of survival, they would take it without much fuss.

Finally, after solving this problem with the captives who served this base, a few minutes passed when all the corpses were already burning in different points of that place.

Smoke rose from the sky while the characteristic smell of burning bodies spread around.

At this point, a soldier was already at Minos's side, reporting on the looting of people who had died during the previous attack.

"Young master, this time we had a huge harvest!" He said excitedly, leaving aside how many deaths had taken place in that place. After all, that was the reality of the cultivation world.

Kill or die!

They had killed, so they deserved the items left by their enemies.

"We counted 32 copies of Black-grade and 827 Blue-grade techniques. There were also 100 medium-grade crystals, 3.8 million low-grade crystals…" He continued to report, talking from the spiritual pills left behind, as well as weapons and arrays.

There were also about 70 spatial rings left behind, as well as a clear bottle with a green liquid inside. The Spring of Life that was in Kevin's spatial ring was now in Minos' hands!

'Oh! So, here you are…' He eyed the bottle in his hand, seeing several bright spots inside the liquid that looked like tiny diamonds. "It's a shame it's already lost most of its effect. At most, it can heal a Spiritual King…" He said in a low voice, remembering the information he had about this item.

It was not difficult to find about this. The more small 'diamond crystals' that appeared in the liquid, the less beneficial the Spring of Life would be.

Consequently, Minos could easily know this.

And while holding the bottle in his right hand, Minos finally looked at the people who had allied with him and were still there.

"Looks like they want to know if I'm going to keep my previous words, hehehe." He laughed as he walked towards those people who were not that far from him.