The Rise of the Black Plain

In the blink of an eye, two whole days had passed...

While Dry City continued receiving more and more citizens coming from the Maritime City, a large amount of dust was spreading in the air a few dozen kilometers north of this city.

But such a phenomenon had no relation to the natural effects that some of the regions of the Spiritual World might have. On the contrary, this dust was coming from the high-speed passage of some beings through that area!

This group that was causing this phenomenon in the vicinity of the Black Plain was composed of 10 beasts, with the smallest of them measuring about 3 meters long and the most enormous, 5 meters!

They all had colorful scales and a pair of wings near their heads, while their snake-like bodies were highly massive. However, each of them had enviable mobility, and some could fly as fast as 5th stage winged beasts.

But even if some of these beasts could fly, none of them were doing so at the moment since part of them had no such capability.

But this was to be expected. After all, of those ten Feathered Serpents, four of them were only beasts at the 4th stage of cultivation, a stage below what one of these beings would need to be able to fly.

Before this happened, the wings of these beings would not yet be fully developed, and they would only be able to move along the ground.

Hence, the individuals in this group who were either at the 5th or 6th stage were not flying, despite having such an ability.

Anyway, as they were moving towards Dry City, this group of Feathered Serpents, in which some of them were carrying items on their backs, were actively conversing through their unique mental connection.

'Chief Lack, how much longer before we reach our destination?' One of the smaller serpents of this group asked this while looking at the being in front of him.

'I think in less than an hour we will get there...' Lack, one of the two Feathered Serpents at the 6th stage in this group, said as he continued to move across the local terrain.

After hearing this, another of those serpents of shorter measurement asked. 'Are we truly going to stay in Dry City? I know the elders think this place is our opportunity, but I don't think there are suitable places for us there...'

'Look how dry the ground is here... We can't live in a place like this for long, elders.' The young serpent finished speaking while having a countenance of hesitation on its large head.

After having felt the earlier effect generated by Minos' advance, the leaders of the Feathered Serpents tribe had separated a group of ten individuals to visit this young man.

Of them, two were elders who were there to protect the members of the tribe and to represent their leader, whom Minos had met previously. Apart from these two, four serpents were there at the 5th stage, and the rest were at the 4th stage.

They traveled to Dry City to congratulate young Stuart on becoming a regional expert. At the same time, they would use this opportunity to establish relations with this young man's organization.

The leaders of this tribe knew very well that Minos had impressive talent and could go very far in the cultivation world. Consequently, they had to be on this young man's good side, so that they could enjoy the benefits in the future!

Therefore, in addition to some gifts that the elders of that tribe had prepared for Minos, they also wanted to offer this young man's organization some of their members.

Every organization on that continent would need capable spiritual beasts to transport and even fight. After all, there were no spatial storages capable of transporting many resources. Consequently, neither of these items could replace transportation by beasts.

On the other hand, beasts had very different ways of fighting and characteristics from humans, which could be very beneficial in certain circumstances. So, every human organization would need to have beings like these in its ranks.

With this, the leader of this tribe, Virtus, had separated 4 of the tribe's juniors who were already at the 4th stage to fulfill this critical role.

That was the reason that these beings at the 4th stage were traveling to Dry City with the rest of the group!

After hearing the complaint of that young serpent, the same individual from before laughed and said. 'Don't worry. We'll take care of this. But even if the local conditions are not the best for us, you will have much more opportunities here!'

'Hmm, old Lack is right.'

'Take the opportunity to live in young Minos' city and don't let yourselves get weak just because the local terrain is not comfortable!' The other great serpent said this as she nodded her large head in the direction of those four individuals.

She then looked forward again while making an expression of disappointment. 'You are very unaccustomed!'

'You lie around all day in the mud of the Flooded Valley, living lives of luxury and ease...'

'Humph, in my time, we couldn't relax in the mud when we wanted to!'

...

While that senior of the tribe led by Virtus was sermonizing her juniors, another group was approaching Dry City from the south side of the local wall.

This group was composed of five humans and three beasts, which looked like big cats, who were running through the dead ground of the Black Plain.

They had large bodies, and their spotted fur would make them look like big cats. But such beings were not cats but a variant species of tiger typically found in the southernmost part of the Cromwell Kingdom.

And not only were these beasts coming from such a kingdom but so were the people traveling on their backs.

"Mendy, did you not lie to me about this? Is that Minos really in Dry City?" A brown-haired young woman asked that to that descendant of the Stokes family.

"Of course, Vivian. I have no reason to lie about that." Mendy replied as he looked in the direction of Vivian Hayes and this woman's girlfriend, Grace Keller, who was traveling on the same beast as Davy's sister.

After several weeks since she had sent her subordinates to the Hayes family town, Mendy had finally managed to get in touch with Vivian a few days ago. And as such, it didn't take long for the two to talk about Minos' plans.

Vivian was curious about who had invaded the Chambers family base with her, so she didn't take long and went to the City of Waters. There, she met Mendy, who had arranged for them to leave from there to Minos' territory.

After that, a few hours ago, their group had finally left that city, heading towards Dry City.

Beforehand, Mendy was already in the City of Waters with some of her family members, the people that would sign the Soul Contracts with Minos' army. But since this young man would not welcome them so openly in Dry City, this woman had left those people in that city doing this with Eda while she traveled with Vivian's group.

On the other hand, Vivian and Grace traveled alongside their bodyguards since both their families were involved in the war against the Chambers family. Therefore, they could not take many risks in traveling without people strong enough to help them!

So, at this very moment, the group of five was traveling towards Dry City, a few dozen kilometers away from where they were.

Anyway, after hearing Mendy's voice, Vivian pressed her fists together as she thought to herself. 'Well, the seer I visited recently said that only positive things would result from trusting this woman... So, I suppose she isn't lying.'

Vivian was a person who used the services of seers a lot. Hence, she had not hesitated to try to find out if Mendy was attempting to set a trap for her by using the information about Minos.

But in doing so, she had found that there was no problem, so she had agreed to go ahead with Mendy's arrangements.

However, Vivian couldn't help but be disbelieving to learn that such a mighty person was in Dry City...

'Could it be that there is some secret on the Black Plain? Has his organization been hiding for all this time?' She wondered as she felt the wind hitting her face.

...