The Rise of the Black Plain

Chapter 15: Spiritual Meeting Array

Ten days have passed since Minos's mother visited him. At this point, she was already gone back to the Flaming Empire, where her Gray Cloud Sect was located.

In those days that passed, Minos reached level 16 and had already trained his technique, Spatial Sword, thousands of times, and in a week or more, he would reach the conclusion of the first phase of the technique.

He also had already separated a specialized defense technique for his advancement to Spiritual Beginner, which should also happen in the next two weeks.

It was a technique called Indestructible Body, Golden-grade classification, with 9 phases. When activated, it could render the user's body indestructible for 10 seconds for those who are up to 100% stronger than the user.

This meant that if the user of the technique was someone at level 20, then he would have an indestructible body for 10 seconds, that not even someone at level 26 could hurt him within that time.

But against someone above that level, the defense would be less and less. At the higher levels, this ability to defend against those at the higher level would decrease as the difference in energy gets bigger and bigger through the levels.

And as for the characteristics of the technique that would improve through the phases, it would start with only the initial 10-second defense and go up to the 9th phase, which in addition to being able to use an impassable defense for that interval, would also allow the user to use their own body as a weapon.

Finally, Dillian had also managed to advance to level 46 these days!!

After all, the butler still had a Black talent, and there were no bottlenecks within the steps. And even if they were in a low-density region, he would still advance to at least level 49, as long as he had time.

Of course, they would not wait that, when there were enough spiritual crystals, the cultivation speed of all Minos' subordinates would increase consistently.

...

A few kilometers from the Dry City, a merchant carriage with a large volume of items was approaching the region. In that carriage, there was a symbol of a silver ship.

That was the symbol of the Nash family from Stone Island!

"Hey, big brother, what are we doing, going to the Dry City? We usually don't come by when we are going to deliver resources to the Brown Kingdom." A muscular man asked.

"Hm, in fact, Miss Elen made an agreement with the new local sovereign of the Black Plain. We are going to leave these four spiritual meeting arrays here, before we go on, to continue our service in the Brown Kingdom." Replied an older man, who had a scar on his left eye.

...

A while passed, and soon the carriage reached Dry City.

"Young Master Minos, the spiritual arrays that Miss Elen had promised have just arrived," Mia spoke after entering Minos's office.

"Oh! That was quick. Let's go get this, grandpa Dillian." Minos said as he had an animated expression on his face.

Soon after, the young man and the middle-aged man went to receive the arrays.

There were three people in the delivery group. A young man who didn't look much older than Minos, a muscular adult man, and a middle-aged man.

"Hello, friends from the Dry City, I'm Sarek, and these are Firrol and Rex Larson." Said the middle-aged man, who had a scar on his eye.

Then the young man in the group stepped forward and began to speak. "Nice to meet you, you can call me Rex. I'm here to inform you about some details about the function of these arrays..."

Thereafter, Minos chose four local guards to learn the basic details of the arrays' operation from the young array master.

This was common in this world. Although the arrays work alone most of the time, there was a need to follow certain processes when manipulating it. This was a job that was usually done by array masters, like the young Rex, a beginner. But in the Dry City, there was no one like that.

So, this young man came with the group to teach the basics. But it wasn't difficult. It was just something that most people didn't learn because they either didn't have crystals to buy an array or they had someone to do these services for them.

After that, it didn't take long, and the arrays were installed in 4 points of the city. The arrays would cover just over a third of the city's area, taking in the entire central area, which was the region with the highest population density.

From what the young Rex had reported, these arrays could improve the spiritual density of the affected region by 15% if it were supplied only with free spiritual energy from the region of the Black Plain, which was very poor at this time.

However, if its up to 10,000 low-grade spiritual crystals were supplied each month, then the improvement would be at least 50%. As for if they wanted more than that, they would have to buy a higher level array since these grade-1, high-level arrays only had an efficiency of 20%, which limited any further increase.

And so, the group said goodbye, going to the east of the Black Plain, heading towards other regions of the Brown Kingdom.

"For now, we will not be able to supply these four spiritual arrays with crystals since it would cost 40,000 crystals per month, but we are doing just fine with a 15% of improvement." Said the butler Dillian, as he held his hands behind his back.

"Hmm, it should be at least 6 months before we can start supplying one of them monthly and 1 year for all four," Minos said with a thoughtful countenance.

Pyke, who was also in the group at the moment, then said with a big smile on his face. "Haha, it doesn't matter. Even if it were 2 years or more, it wouldn't make a difference for us. Having any improvement in the spiritual concentration of the region is already beyond our dreams."

After that, other guards nodded their heads. With a 15% improvement in spiritual concentration, they would already be able to cultivate much faster. This was already very good for them who did not want to take chances in a stronger place.

...

The night quickly fell, and the four arrays were already in full operation. That night, many people noticed a sudden increase in spiritual concentration in some parts of the city.

Meanwhile, in several places in the city, people who were starting to cultivate realized that the time it took to gather spiritual energy around them was less!!

"Huh? Why does it seem easier to gather spiritual energy?" An adult man thought while he cultivated.

Elsewhere in the central parts of the city, a small group of people was talking.

"I'm saying. The spiritual density is higher. When I cultivated today, it took me 20 minutes less to gather the surrounding energy." Said a young man with a euphoric expression on his face.

"But that doesn't make sense. Why would spiritual concentration improve like that all of a sudden?" Asked a middle-aged man in disbelief.

In this world, feeling the surrounding energy was something that everyone could do, but those who were weaker needed to cultivate to realize that.

However, when someone reached level 40, cultivators could use free energy in heaven and on earth, and so they could feel the differences in spiritual density even without cultivating. But there weren't many at that level within the Dry City.

As a result, a new rumor slowly began to spread throughout the city, saying that the spiritual energy was more concentrated than normal.

And it didn't take long for many people to notice this change. They also realized that this was not happening across the city. It was something that was limited to the regions closest to the central part, which covered just over a third of the entire Dry City.

...

A few days passed in the Black Plain, while many people were cultivating even faster than normal, the central region was getting busier and busier. And some people were already struggling to get a place to live in that part of the city.

Minos had also increased his cultivation these days, reaching level 18. He was almost reaching the Spiritual Beginner!!

Not only he was getting better, but the young secretary Mia had already risen to level 25 in the nearly two months that Minos had arrived in the Dry City. She, like Minos' other subordinates, was also training Black-grade techniques. As a result, her cultivation speed has grown considerably.

In those days, the youths that Minos had brought into his forces also turned 10 and came to the mansion to receive their cultivation techniques.

Both Lee and Alison received the same cultivation technique of Black-grade that was being passed on among Minos' subordinates and then began to cultivate. And as individuals with Black talent, they also had a good cultivation speed, having already reached level 2.

And at that point, the wheat, corn, and rice crops were almost ready to be harvested, which would allow some more of Minos' plans for the city to be put into practice.