The Rise of the Black Plain

As those people watched Minos, he began to read a fully golden scroll in his hands.

First, Emperor Stuart began to understand some of the Natural Laws involved in that soul technique, one of the most important for a cultivator.

When a cultivator began their journey in cultivation, unknowingly, they started a race to form their soul into something independent of the fleshy body. Because of this, the soul would grow and develop throughout cultivation in a process that even the greatest experts in this world did not fully understand how far it could go.

But whether or not they understood everything about this process, it was a fact that the soul's development was crucial. And to separate such a thing from the fleshy body, one would first have to reach level 70 and then learn a soul technique.

Through this, a cultivator could utilize their abilities to the fullest, perform the possible fusions and express 100% of the power of their techniques!

Therefore an 8th-stage cultivator would be considered an expert even in the strongest places in this world!

Thus, the work Minos would have in understanding the laws behind that technique was on a level totally different from anything he had ever come into contact with in this world.

Consequently, it would take him someone time to decipher those laws, even considering his talent was superior even to those individuals with Golden talent.

He would not only need to read the contents of that scroll as it happened with others. Even if reading the scroll was enough for a technique to be engraved into his soul, that was not enough to use the Soul Avatar.

To achieve this, Minos would have to synchronize his soul with that technique after he exhibited minimal control over the required Natural Laws.

So it was not long after having that technique inscribed in his mind that Minos had his mind 'taken' to a realistic illusion where he could master the basics of such a thing.

In this illusion, he found himself face to face with the shadow of Henricus Longus, the creator of several of his techniques, whom he always saw at times like this.

As Minos was already used to this and even knew what he had to do because of the memories left by that man, he soon began to act within this mental illusion.

Instead of trying to fight or anything of the sort against that man, he sat meditatively in a place that seemed to be the heavens, where only clouds were below his feet.

There, he infused all his strength into what he had just inscribed into his soul, causing that part of his being to tremble slightly.

After a while, this began to make Minos' soul try to leave his body like a balloon being filled with gases.

This process would continue for several minutes while his spectators were impressed by the speed of his comprehension.

Even though he was learning a Golden-grade technique, Minos was already showing signs of primary mastery with less than half an hour of meditation.

With this, his soul was already slowly taking on the form of a Soul Avatar, showing itself outside his body.

Emperor Stuart had chosen to learn at this stage a soul technique, Space and Time Avatar, Golden grade, composed of 4 stages.

Such a technique had as its main ability the activation of the Soul Avatar, whereby the user could dispose of all their abilities through this without using their fleshy body. They could use this projection of their soul to fight directly against other avatars or even activate other techniques.

At the same time, such a technique increased the chance of successful fusions by 100% and used more energy from the surroundings during the fusion than from the user's soul.

What was the significance of this? Using his avatar, Minos could become less fatigued when using his fusions, which could significantly help him improve his combat skills.

But not only did the avatar decrease its user's energy expenditure during fusions. It also did this for the activation of all the user's techniques!

In addition, all the user's techniques were 10% stronger when activated in the Soul Avatar's form than when activated directly by the cultivator's fleshy body.

Finally, the Space and Time Avatar had one final ability: to create a 'domain' under 500 meters away from the user. Such a domain could slow down the passage of time within it, with a 2:1 ratio to the outer side. That is, while 2 minutes would pass inside this space, people outside it would feel as if it had been 1 minute.

These were the characteristics of Minos' new technique for the first stage of mastery. As he developed it, Emperor Stuart could even reach the level of 16:1 in that ratio and 4,000-meter radius in the space of action of this technique.

As for the limits of the technique concerning Minos' targets, that was the best point of this soul technique.

It had no limits!

No matter Minos' opponents' strength, they would face this young man's domain and feel time passing differently. The only distinction regarding his opponent's strength would be that if such a person were much stronger than this emperor, his techniques would not work on this opponent.

These were the characteristics of this new technique of Minos, which gave him all the confidence to pursue his short-term goals.

...

While Minos was learning the basics of the soul technique, Space and Time Avatar, his women watched him, seeing that it would not be long before he finished.

At the moment, a large spiritual figure, with the silhouette of Minos, with a golden glow about it, semi-transparent, was almost 100% formed above him.

This silhouette was also sitting cross-legged, as was the case with his fleshy body. But due to its size, people from various parts of the Dry City core also saw him.

"Look at that. Doesn't that one look like His Majesty?"

"That's right! That Soul Avatar is in the imperial palace, so that can only be His Majesty!" Alison's mother yelled at her husband as she realized that her daughter's master was learning his 8th technique.

'So he's already doing that!' One of the Assembly of Vogel representatives in this city, who was part of the Minos faction within that institution, thought this over with satisfaction.

The Assembly was practically all subdivided between pro and against Minos. So since he and his family were already on Dry City's side, he obviously could not help but be pleased.

On the other hand, more people around the inner area of the local defensive dome were seeing this and celebrating.

That was the case for some elders of the Miller family and House Nash, who were in this place to take advantage of local opportunities.

'Minos has already reached that level...' Richard, Elen's father, level 66, thought as he looked at the silhouette of the Emperor's Soul Avatar, which was similar in height to a 4-story building.

"It looks like he's finishing..." A level 77 elder of the Gray Clouds Sect outside that palace saw that and muttered just before Minos opened his eyes.

...