The Rise of the Black Plain

Returning to the path they had taken in pursuit of Artaud, the group found the arm that the General himself had cut off to avoid the seal Minos had placed on it.

Upon reaching the area, Minos' men soon found the enemy's space storage item lying not far from that limb.

Minos stored the item in his spatial ring before signaling for his men to gather around it. Then, while his cultivation was still at level 108, he used the Divine Seal to teleport his group back to the vicinity of Examire.

He couldn't bring living beings directly to the guild, as there were powerful formations around the headquarters that would prevent him from teleporting inside. The corpses in Minos' special coffins were different. Such corpses were not considered living beings in their coffins, and they were beings that had their position in this guild as their original position; the defenses of the headquarters did not consider them to be invading objects.

But things were different for living beings. Hence, Minos had already marked out a spot quite close to Examire. From there, he could lead his group to the current location and walk the rest of the way to the headquarters.

Minos and his five companions felt their strength diminishing as the surrounding space distort, teleporting their bodies away from the area where the chase had taken place.

...

As Minos and his people returned to the guild, Artaud moved and felt his level 117 cultivation drop to level 116.

'I need to find a place to hide and spend the next few months recuperating safely. If I take the easy way out, Minos will find me and kill me. I can't let that happen!'

Artaud ran across the forest, one arm holding the wound in his cut arm.

Going back to the guild was something he couldn't do. Since he would be weak for the next few months and there was a risk that Minos was looking for him in the area, his only alternative was to find a place to hide.

Unlike Minos, he wasn't a seer, so there was nothing to guarantee that his enemies weren't after him.

'I will survive! When I recover, you'll pay for this, Minos!' he thought as his eyes flashed violently, his most negative and cruel aura capable of frightening almost any being in his vicinity.

Even though he was hiding his cultivation for fear of Minos catching up with him, his murderous intent slipped out of his control for a moment, causing dozens of 11th stage beings around to faint.

"Shit!"

He saw an area of underground tunnels not far away and soon followed the trail to hide in a part of that region dominated by a race of special ants.

...

While Artaud was finding his hiding place, Minos and his people had left the place where his teleportation seal was and were heading back to Examire.

Since they were only a few dozen kilometers from the city, the group quickly made their way between their arrival point and the magnificent guild headquarters city.

Before checking what Artaud had left him as a legacy, Minos led his men back to the Armhands' headquarters, where his five allies would have to arrive quickly to go into seclusion.

With the two who had temporarily reached level 116 returning to level 114 and the other three returning to level 113, their cultivation would soon return to normal and they would begin to weaken.

The sooner they began their recuperative seclusion, the better the conditions for their regeneration would be, and the less time it would take for them to return to their best condition.

As soon as they gained access to the guild's interior, the five of them went to the cave of Minos' faction, accompanied by him, but with a different purpose in mind.

While the men in the cave began to cultivate under the observation of the faction members, Minos went to the coffin of the corpse that had taken the body of his target on the previous mission.

"Minos, what happened?" Vico, standing next to the level 107 robot, asked as he approached the brown-haired human, who currently had long hair with a few white strands here and there.

The faction leader explained as a smile of relief appeared on his face. "Things got out of hand on the mission. Artaud killed my target and confronted us before sacrificing the Flashdrain parasite himself."

"What? He did that?" Vico's eyes widened as he looked at the men cultivating there. "Did you win?" Otis asked, seeing that they had returned alive, but unsure if they had achieved all their goals since they had returned much sooner than expected.

Otis knew his master could teleport, but its cost was not cheap!

Minos couldn't use such a possibility whenever he wanted!

"No, we stalled. The enemy escaped after he realized he couldn't kill us and that he was in danger of dying." Minos said as he retrieved the body of his target from the previous mission. "At least we could complete my external mission and eliminate the threat of Artaud for the next few months. He must not return to bother us until he has fully recovered his post-sacrifice seclusion."

The greater the cultivation and the temporary increase in power brought about by the sacrifice, the greater the rebound effect of the sacrifice. Thus, those who understood the Flashdrain parasite easily understood that they would indeed be free of General Artaud for a while.

"But when he returns, we'll be in serious trouble." Otis commented, concerned for the welfare of his master and the faction.

"That is true. We must prepare for the worst to come against us in six months to a year. That's the maximum amount of peace time we'll have before an attack by multiple peak Sovereigns. Artaud certainly won't let what happened today pass without a proper revenge."

Minos said this as he looked at the enemy's camp, imagining the riches he would find there. But before that, he left the cave to complete his mission.

Later, he would calmly check the enemy's belongings!