The Rise of the Black Plain

Chapter 16: Spiritual Beginner

With the harvest approaching and the beginning of the cultivation of more lands, Minos had already requested that another group, this time of 400 people, be organized to prepare and cultivate another 6 hectares, accounting for 9 hectares for the next harvest.

Today, Minos was preparing to meet with a local merchant who could sell his products inside a market in the Dry City.

Minos was walking towards a busy street in the center of the city accompanied by two guards. This was where most stores that sold food were located.

He then entered a place that was called the Central Market, a 3-story building. The area was quite large and had a good movement since this was one of the few places in the city where the population could find grains, cereals, fruits, and vegetables with spiritual energy.

For example, the price of a kilo of rice, corn, and spiritual wheat was four low-grade crystals in that place. The exact price that Minos wanted to charge for his products. The difference is that, due to the water of the Spatial Kingdom, the grains and cereals that he would sell would be much richer in spiritual energy than those sold locally.

"Hello, how can I help you?" A young woman, who was dressed in the uniform of the place, asked towards the group of Minos.

"Hello, where can I find the manager? I have a business to do with him." Replied Minos with a friendly smile on his face.

"Oh! Mr. Somir is in his office. I will show you the way."

…

Shortly after that, Minos met with Somir. He was a middle-aged man, fat and bald. He was well-dressed and looked very healthy. Apparently, he lived very well, even though he was in the Dry City.

"Welcome to the Central Market, young master Stuart. How can I help someone as important as you?" The fat man said pleasantly. He had recognized the young man in front of him. That was why he was talking to him so softly.

"Well, as you may know, I've been planting in the Black Plain for a few weeks now, and it's almost time to harvest. That's why I want a place that sells my products." Minos spoke sincerely.

Somir quickly understood and asked a question shortly thereafter. "Can I know what the young master would be selling? The quantity too."

"2.5 tons of wheat, 3.75 tons of corn, and 3.75 tons of rice, all rich in spiritual energy. I intend to sell them at a price equivalent to the products already sold at this store."

"Oh! Then that's it. Well, as there isn't a lot, we can do business. If it was much more, as I still don't know the products, I couldn't go on with that." Said the manager sincerely.

After all, he was already reselling products from the Cromwell Kingdom, so he couldn't just throw away the investment he had already made in those products. Even more in something unknown!

But due to the quantities that Somir heard from Minos, even if the product weren't good, he would still be able to sell it since the demand for these items was high and the quantity offered by this new local sovereign didn't even reach 2% of the total demand!

So, Somir was confident in selling Minos grains and cereals.

After closing the deal, they agreed that Minos' men would take these negotiated resources to be sold at the Central Market as soon as the harvest was done. It was also agreed that there would be a 10% fee, which would be paid to the Central Market.

After that, Minos returned to his daily activities at his mansion.

…

A week had passed quickly, and Minos had already reached level 19 three days ago, and today he planned to break up to level 20, Spiritual Beginner!

He was in the Spatial Kingdom cultivating diligently, sitting, and meditating in front of the lake that was in this place.

Minos then began to circulate the Solar God Breath technique, which had already reached the end of the 2nd phase and was ready to move forward. Meanwhile, within the body of Minos, the spiritual energy was slowly reaching the limit of level 19.

At that moment, Minos' soul's spirituality finally completed the transition to becoming something with form and visible within the young Stuart's consciousness.

Before that, the soul would be just a nebulous cluster that couldn't be understood as something other than the body. It could be considered only a part of the individual's metabolism.

But from the Spiritual Beginner stage, the soul would constantly increase its spirituality, reaching the level of solidifying and becoming something palpable at the level of a Spiritual Saint.

Minos' body also received the traditional cleaning of impurities that was had at each stage. This time, the amount of toxins released from his body was about 4 times greater than the previous one. And as for the smell, hehe, Minos felt like something dead was living inside him!

This advance had an even greater effect than the previous one. This time Minos' vitality increased by 100 years, reaching 250 years of life expectancy. The energy that Minos needed to go from level 19 to 20 was also 4 times greater than the amount he had previously needed when he went up from the 1st to the 2nd stage.

After taking a long shower to get the stink out of his body, Minos then started training his new technique, Indestructible Body.

"With an indestructible body, I will defend the world and crush my enemies."

Minos began to understand the technique little by little when he finally activated it. If anyone looked, it would seem that nothing happened, but for Minos, it was as if his body was made of pure metal.

He felt that even if someone with the same strength as he attacked him with a sword and he stood without defending himself, he would still not be hurt!

However, he was still unable to use the technique to attack. This was something that would come only when he was much stronger. And he could only use this technique for 10 seconds, using 50% of his current spiritual energy.

This technique also required that the technique be activated for a total of 50 hours to reach the peak of the first phase of the technique. It was no different from the Spatial Sword, which also required a minimum number of activations to move forward.

After many hours training his techniques and cultivating, Minos left the Spatial Kingdom and decided to take a few hours to rest.

…

Time passed, and finally was time for the harvest. For the first time in hundreds of thousands of years, such a thing has been done in this region.

The initial 200 farmers were pleased with what they're done, and today the fruits of their work have finally come.

With the strength of these cultivators, all three hectares were quickly harvested, and the grain and cereal were prepared in a building next to the fields, which had been properly built at the request of the farmers.

Several carriages were made, especially for the transportation of these items since none of them had spatial rings, and such rings didn't have such capacity.

…

Two days after the harvest, all the items were already in the Central Market and would start to be sold today.

At the Central Market, a middle-aged woman, Dara, was going to buy the week's ingredients for her family. She was a housewife, married and with two children, and had to save every crystal that her family earned.

'I hope that the rice isn't of a poor quality today. Last week I had to throw half of what I bought in the trash.' She thought discontentedly.

Sometime later, she stopped in front of a stall, where there were the biggest grains of rice that she had ever seen. It also had a white color that almost glowed. Although Dara couldn't feel the free spiritual energy in heaven and on earth, she knew that these grains had an amount of spiritual energy that was, at least, greater than the other rice sold in this store.

"Young lady, can you separate 2 kilos of this rice for me?" She spoke to a uniformed girl, who was standing by the balcony.

"Just a minute."

"Young lady, can you tell me where this rice came from?" Dara asked curiously.

The young woman then responded quickly. "It came from here, in the region of the Black Plain. This is the spiritual rice grown by the new local sovereign."

"Oh! Then that's it." She was shocked to learn that a culture planted here in these areas could yield such a quality.

…

At Dara's house, it was time for lunch, and only she and her two children were at home. Dara had cooked the rice bought at the market earlier and wanted to know its taste and spirituality.

It was not long before one of the boys, that had already started to cultivate, praising the food. "This rice is delicious, mom."

Soon afterward, he let out a cry of surprise.

"Ahhh!"

"What happened?" Asked his mother.

"I just advanced while eating this rice!" Heryd, Dara's eldest son, who was already at level 5, said in shock. After eating a portion of rice, he went straight up to level 6!

...

While Dara's family was dazzled by the effects of the new spiritual rice sold at the Central Market, the same thing was happening in other families in the Dry City.

It didn't take long, and soon the rumor of spiritual rice that could spur advances after a few spoons spread throughout the city.

Soon, people start looking for rice and other products planted in the Black Plain as if they were treasures!