The Rise of the Black Plain

While Peter and his two traveling companions were in that city in the Snow Kingdom, the news concerning Dry City had already spread throughout the entire northern region of the Central Continent!

The Night News had taken no longer than necessary to publish that. When they had managed to produce the minimum number of copies, they had immediately released such a special edition.

And with the shocking cover, where there was a depiction of the beheading of Otis Silva, along with the headline, 'The Ambition of Minos,' quickly all the copies had been sold.

Followed by this, the news reported in that regional periodical quickly spread throughout the region, with readers passing such information on to those who had not been able to get a copy.

Then, in the blink of an eye, every adult in this region of the Central Continent was already aware of the shocking changes on the Black Plain, of the rebellion in the Brown Kingdom, of the identity of the contested Minos.

Obviously, the journalists who had gone to Dry City had recognized young Stuart.

After all, they were members of an organization of the Cromwell Kingdom, where the Spiritual Tournament took place in the last time. So, they could not help but recognize the finalist of that competition.

And by associating the name, the boldness, the mystery behind it, it was not difficult for those three journalists to identify the competitor Minos as the current ruler of the Black Plain!

Consequently, that information was also in that edition, finally solving the mystery of contestant Minos and opening up the mystery of Minos Stuart, a young man with a desire for fire.

On the other hand, the Night News had done as promised to Minos, maintained its impartiality, and portrayed all that its journalists had witnessed and heard in Dry City.

They had not defended Minos' views, but neither had they criticized or commented on favoring the Brown family or other regional powers.

All they'd done was give young Stuart a voice, communicating some of the Dry City reality and his intentions to the region's nearly 2 billion people!

With that, the regional population now had a significant issue to discuss, not only a mere incident but a radical change in the regional situation.

The Night News report showed a rebellion in the Brown Kingdom. But this was not all. It brought up several delicate issues that could significantly affect many people's lives in this region.

First, Minos was not only a rebel. But the exceptionally talented finalist of the Spiritual Tournament, someone who, at level 39, had achieved a draw with a powerful level 44 cultivator. So, many people around this region were already counting on the Black Plain being commanded by someone powerful!

Imagine what would happen if such a person reached level 59?

He would be the strongest in the region!

Second, the information about Dry City had been no less shocking than Minos' rebellion!

The Night News had described Dry City as a completely different place than people in this region would think. It was no longer a poor area, with an absence of life and hardship for its inhabitants. On the contrary, it was a green, prosperous place with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants and many options.

The journalists who had had contact with that city had not had the opportunity to understand the place in depth, so the article concerning it did not solve all their doubts. But just the sight of the buildings, infrastructure, and inhabitants' clothing had been enough for them to assume many things about that place.

Hence, they described a city that would not lack anything compared to regional mid-sized cities.

As for the productivity of the soil of the Black Plain, that had also been mentioned in the report, even if those journalists had not seen the plantations there.

Minos' own people had informed them of such a thing!

But that was for a good reason. After all, the Brown family already had this information. So, in this way, it did not harm Minos.

On the other hand, the regional population understanding such a thing was an essential measure for the Black Plain to become more attractive for potential future migrations.

Third, even in rebellion, Minos had been described sensibly in that article as someone who even used the laws of the Brown Kingdom to punish a subordinate of House Brown.

In his speech, Minos had made it clear that he did not want war but had been forced to choose this path by external forces. And with that being reported in the second regional periodical, he had made his intentions for peace clear.

All of this was very important for this region. Because it opened up a new regional opportunity, one that was not necessarily ruled by a blood madman, who was perhaps going to ruin everyone who joined him.

And all of this was being discussed in the cities of this region at the moment!

...

In a central part of the Brown Kingdom, there was a large city in the middle of the territory under the administration of the Parkinson family, an area that was less than 10% of the total area of the Black Plain.

But even though it was much smaller than the area ruled by Minos, this place had a few million inhabitants. Besides, the local wealth produced annually was a few times greater than that of the entire Black Plain put together.

In any case, this place was the headquarters of this medium-sized noble family, the home of Celeste, who, by the way, was a noble of this family.

Anyway, this place from where Celeste had fled with her son-in-law years ago, the number of members of this family now was a fraction of what usually was.

But this was to be expected. After all, many members of the noble families of this kingdom were on the Black Plain right now, preparing for the battles that would take place there.

Therefore, this place was much quieter than usual.

But even in this situation, a few thousand people were in this headquarters to receive the shocking news published by the Night News.

In particular, Brooke Parkinson, the young friend of Minos and Abby from the spiritual academy days, Neal's former wife, Celeste's daughter. She was in that headquarters at the moment, finishing finding out about the events on the Black Plain.

Gulp!

'I can't believe Minos is behind all this trouble!' She thought in shock, surprised to find out all this about her friend.

She did not know about the secret war that was going on in the Black Plain between Dry City forces and the Brown family. After all, she was not part of that family's command as her strength was too low for her to get involved.

And as the general public was unaware of Minos' rebellion, she had no idea he was to blame for her family's current problems!

Because of this, as she read the special edition of the Night News, she could not help but be terribly surprised, frightened, anxious for what would happen next.

'It can't be!'

'Does that mean that Minos is now our enemy?' She thought about it fearfully, feeling bad that her family would stand against this friend of hers.

Brooke was previously a gorgeous and confident young woman. But after catching her mother and husband exchanging fluids, she had lost much of her confidence.

That had even affected her cultivation and beauty, making her less impressive than she originally was.

As such, besides being only at level 44, she was pretty insecure, fearful, and attached to the things or people she trusted before her whole nightmare began.

Because of this, she could not help but worry about Minos, a young man who had always been so peaceful, so calm, and who had suffered so much in the recent past. She could not see him as an enemy, and in this way, she felt terrible to find herself on the opposite side of him.

'What am I going to do? Minos is a rebel, he...'

'He's going to die!' She agitatedly thought as she swallowed her saliva in fear.

'What can I do to try to fix this?' She pondered in doubt before finally getting up and heading towards one of the specialists on standby in that headquarters.