The Rise of the Black Plain

After a few days in the capital of Vogel, Minos and his wives had gotten to know the basics of that city, ways to escape safely, and also got to know the local branch of the Spiritual Church better.

This branch was closely intertwined with the local powers, similar to what happened in the northern region before Minos' rise and how he planned the future with his actions before his departure.

Because of this, he and his wives realized that as much as the people in this branch of the Church helped them with no doors closed, they had to be careful.

Because of this, they had spent these days of waiting for the local holiday working in secret, minimally involving the members of that branch and not drawing too much attention.

On the surface, they seemed to enjoy getting to know a new place while waiting for the moment to talk to the royalty members about the 'person' they were searching for.

So, nothing had gotten in the way of their actions during this period, and their group had no problems or challenges.

And with that, besides that business of the four of them, they had met a lot of local services and even gone out shopping.

Minos' focus on this trip was to help the Black Plain, and as much as he was going to do his business, preferably in the Flaming Empire, where there were more options, that did not stop him from taking advantage of opportunities on his way.

Each state traded more or less the same series of products, with slight variation from one place to another in terms of versions. Naturally, there were differences in quality, but one would typically be able to find every kind of product when traveling through this world, regardless of which state one was in.

But in each state, there were peculiarities, products, and sometimes services that could be difficult to find outside that area. An example of this was the aphrodisiac trade, one of the vital sectors of this state.

So, Minos had taken the opportunity to buy in this state seeds and other materials related to specializations that were difficult to find in the Flaming Empire.

But while he was getting essential items for the Black Plain and getting to know the place better, Louise had already gathered a group of Spiritual Emperors to talk to Minos.

She had taken a few days to select those who had profiles similar to the one requested by Minos. After that, she still had to talk to each of them and set up a meeting with that fellow to present what he had in mind.

But finally, she had the opportunity to have all these people and Minos in one room, where they were meeting now.

...

"So, you are here because you are interested in what Louise told you? Are you interested in joining my group?" Minos asked as he and his wives were seated on the same side of a large table, opposite the six people in Louise's group.

Upon hearing the masked individual's questions and observing the four of them there, those six people, Louise among them, nodded, waiting for Minos' following words.

"Well, you have made the right choice. Those who ally themselves with my wife's group," He pointed to Gloria. "will definitely get excellent results that will take you beyond your current goals."

"I dare say that the 9th stage will not be impossible for you if you do your job well." Minos said, showing them what he intended to deliver them if they were on Gloria's side.

"9th stage?" Louise and another woman there repeated simultaneously, impressed at how high Minos had already started.

It might not seem far to talk about level 80 onwards when someone was already above level 65, like most of these Spiritual Emperors. But the distance between these levels was many times greater than between levels 0 and 65!

That was especially true for these people from Vogel and even the Flaming Empire, where the strongest and most talented had cultivated for thousands of years and 'only' reached the peak of the 8th stage.

Because of this, instead of dreaming of such a difficult stage to reach, these 'youngsters' aimed to become as strong as the leaders of their post, high-level Spiritual Saints.

So, Minos had offered them something far beyond what they thought they could achieve in their lives, and they could not help but be shocked.

Minos smiled from beneath his mask and said. "That's right. But that depends on your limitations and efforts. It will be impossible if someone here has messed up their cultivation foundation or cannot work hard."

"But if you have the potential, then I guarantee that if you put in the effort and don't die prematurely, it's only a matter of time before you get there."

One of the more attentive men among those six people then asked. "And how would you help us with that? Do you have any way to prove that you can do that?"

Minos looked at the dark-skinned, long-haired man and said. "I won't prove it since that would attract trouble for me. Just imagine a Spiritual Emperor talking about the 9th stage..." He spoke in a tone of a joke. "But I won't ask for disproportionate things from you either."

"The more we ask, the more we will deliver. If one day we don't deliver enough to prove that we can keep this audacious promise, you will naturally have the option to stop your services."

"In any case, we will do this through resources, artifacts, and opportunities." He opened his hands and gestured. "We have a great infrastructure and organization on our side that will facilitate everything."

"Do you need proper armor? We can do that by developing one for you or even sponsoring you. Do you need doctors? We have promising people on our side and contacts that can bring you closer to high-level doctors from other organizations. And so on for everything you can think of."

"But of course, some of those things will grow with us. But that's kind of self-evident, right? I wouldn't be talking to Spiritual Emperors if I could attract Spiritual Saints..." He was sincere, but without harming himself by talking about weaknesses.

His main promise was ambitious. But as he said, if he were already capable of doing more incredible things, there would be no sense in wasting time on weaker people.

And since those people knew that Minos had challenging powers and seemed very young, he certainly had growth potential.

So, knowing that he and those behind his group needed time to mature as needed to fulfill that promise was not a bad thing. In fact, it was the opposite, a good thing!

After all, it was better to grow with an organization than to already be in a developed power that may no longer create significant opportunities for people at their levels.

Thus, being with a growing power could give them the advantage of being valued, even considering their 'low' levels.

They were silent after Minos' words, thinking on the subject.

One woman then asked. "And what exactly would we have to do for this opportunity? I imagine the 'costs' of such a chance are not small, right?"

...