The Rise of the Black Plain

After Viola left the hotel, Minos spent some time on the balcony of his room, watching the view of the City of Waters that could be seen from that place.

It was already ten o'clock in the morning, but he still had plenty of time to meet the city governor. So, he was enjoying the view while relaxing.

The climate was pleasant at that time, with 17 degrees Celsius (62.6ºF) of temperature, and a nice wind, which passed from time to time.

In front of the balcony of the room where Minos was, there was a broad view of the city, with a piece of the port being visible from there, the mansion in the city center, and some close squares.

He could see that the city's movement was already very active, with many people coming and going through the town.

After observing this for a few minutes, Minos finally decided to enter the Spatial Kingdom and train until it was time for him to leave.

...

Hours passed quickly, and by this time, the sun had already moved away from its pin position.

Minos had already finished his cultivation session, and it was time for him to leave to meet the ruler Mirya.

He took a quick shower and dressed in a black suit, with a white silk shirt underneath, getting ready to leave. He wanted to look good. After all, the first impression was what was left.

And this would also be Minos' first time negotiating directly with someone in the Spiritual King stage. So, the young Stuart had to behave appropriately when meeting someone at this level.

Ruler Mirya was already a mature woman who might also be older than his mother. Therefore, he would not behave in front of her in the same way he acted with Elen. Despite being business, an experienced lady like Mirya could behave quite differently from the young Elen...

Finally, when Minos left his room, he saw the two youths ready to go while the soldiers were talking.

"Guys, the time has come for us to go. Come on."

After saying this, the group left the hotel quickly, heading towards the mansion in the center of the City of Waters.

...

A few minutes later, the group finally arrived at the mansion's reception, where there were two young attendants.

There were some people in this place, sitting in different places at this reception, while conversations could be heard from side to side.

"Ahh, my payment was late again..."

"Things are difficult, the way I am now. I will probably have to close my business soon..."

"Did you hear the latest news? In this northwestern region of the kingdom, the Chambers family opened a new branch..."

And finally, Minos approached one of the receptionists and said. "Hello, my name is Minos. I have an appointment with Madam  Mirya."

"Oh?" The girl made a sound of surprise. It was unusual for her to see people coming to meet the local governor. "Ehh, give me a minute..."

And right after that, she pulled a book out of a drawer and then looked for something, when she finally smiled and looked at Minos. "Mister Minos, come with me. Madam Mirya is already waiting for you..."

After confirming that Minos did have an appointment with Mirya, she headed towards the room where the ruler usually received visitors, in part farther from the mansion's entrance.

The group followed the young receptionist, and after a few minutes, they finally arrived at the place where Mirya was.

They were in a corridor with several sofas spread out, while there were many doors in that place. And one of them, the biggest of them all, gave entrance to the room where Mirya was waiting for Minos.

"Madam Mirya, Mr. Minos is already here." The receptionist said so after entering the room alone.

Mirya, who was sitting in a leather chair, took her attention off the book she was reading and then said. "Let him in."

After that, the receptionist left the room and went to the corridor, where Minos and company waited. "Mister Minos, madam Mirya invited you to come in."

"Hmm. Lee, Alison, come with me. The rest can wait outside."

After that, the three entered that place.

Arriving inside that room, they were able to see a charming place, with some decorative plants, beautiful pictures that depicted the City of Waters, and some decorative furniture, with several books on a shelf.

And in the middle of the room, a mature woman was sitting in a leather chair. She had green hair and a captivating appearance, which could undoubtedly attract young people like Minos. And she was dressed provocatively, in a red dress, which showed how well her body was...

Seeing this, Minos smiled and thought of something. 'She is very similar to Viola. Hmm, they must be a mother and daughter...'

At the same time, the two youths who accompanied Minos sat on a sofa there and watched the woman closely. This was the first time that the two saw someone in the Spiritual King stage, so they could not help but feeling certain respect for her.

Currently, reaching that stage was the goal of the two young people, so they were pleased to meet someone like that.

At the same time that Minos' group was settling in, Mirya was watching them closely.

She immediately probed the strength of the three, discovering that they were at levels 42, 31, and 30. After feeling this, she was shocked at the power of the three, because she could see that they were all very young!

In addition, she could scent a strong smell coming from Minos, a fragrance that she knew well... That was the natural smell of her daughter, Viola!

'As expected...' She thought to herself, thinking about how her daughter did not miss the opportunity to get her hands on a virile young man like Minos.

He then said. "It's nice to meet you, madam Mirya." He then made a gesture with his hands, directed at the two youths, and continued. "These are Lee and Alison, and I am training them both. So, I hope you don't mind the two of them here."

"Oh? Well, it's good for young people to learn from an early age..." She commented with a friendly smile on her face. "But I must congratulate the young Minos. I have never seen people as young as these two, already in the 4th stage of cultivation!"

"The young Minos must represent a powerful force in our region... Maybe you are hiding your surname?" She asked, with one of her fingers touching her cherry lips.

'It seems that Viola's seductive skills did not come out of anywhere...' The young Stuart thought to himself, seeing Mirya's way of acting. She really was a lioness, who was always ready to go out and 'hunt'...

"Haha, Madam Mirya is very smart. But it would be better for everyone if I didn't talk about it... Anyway, I have a great offer for you."

"Oh? That's right?"

"Hmm. Well, as I don't know Madam Mirya well enough, I won't go into all the details. But I want to make an agreement with the City of Waters regarding the unemployed population of this place."

"So, that's what this is about... Well, I can't make a deal where only my side loses something. If some of our inhabitants leave, even if they are unemployed, we will lose a lot of crystals with that." She said in a disgruntled manner.

"I know that. So, I will pay you 100 low-grade crystals for every unemployed person who agrees to leave this place and come with me to another region." Minos said that while he looked Mirya in the eye.

"What?" She exclaimed as she quickly got up from her chair.

Mirya couldn't help being frightened by this offer made by Minos. Because it actually was unbelievable!

By Mirya's calculations, this could generate 1.5 million to 2.2 million low-grade crystals!

After all, in addition to the unemployed, there were still family members with them, which totaled more than 20,000 people who could be in the group for which Minos was looking. Of course, these people would not leave their families behind, so he would have to pay for them too!

And for Mirya, this was an immense amount of spiritual crystals, which this city would take a long time to gather!

For the tax currently charged, minus the operating costs of maintaining this region of the City of Waters, this place would take 3 to 4 years to profit more than 1.5 million crystals!

With that, this was a considerable amount of crystals, and all this to remove people who barely generated local income!

After all, unemployed people paid the local tax of 4 low-grade crystals a year and hardly spent in the city. That's because they didn't have many crystals left, and the City of Waters was not like the Dry City.

In the Dry City, the local sovereign was, in fact, the owner of all the lands, except for the buildings within the city. But that was only because it was not worth it for anyone to buy lands in the Black Plain.

Therefore, all that territory belonged to the local sovereign!

But the City of Waters was different. There were many private properties in the region, which were large enough for the poorest people to grow their own food.

Thus, these unemployed people in this city did not need to spend many crystals inside the City of Waters. Some planted at home, while others had animals. Thus, the two sides exchanged their items and ordinarily lived here.

But this did not generate almost any profit for the sovereign family of this place since it did not generate jobs. Consequently, it did not stimulate the local economy.

Therefore, these unemployed people hardly generated any profit for the Stokes family, apart from the annual tax they had to pay!