The Rise of the Black Plain

'Minos Stuart?' The level 85 man kept that name in his mind, feeling he should visit the Black Plain Empire.

Only through this could he and his family recover some of the items left by his ancestor to rebuild this decaying family.

At the time of the Goddess of Life, her survivors had been lucky not only to survive the calamity that struck their village. They had also managed to reach a place on the continent that was relatively peaceful at the time and had good opportunities.

Because of that, they survived, and their descendants, who were as talented or more talented than their parents, developed the family to thousands of years later have even Demigods in their ranks.

They were low-level 10th-stage cultivators, and in their time, the Goddess of Life had already disappeared from the world, having died in her attempt to advance stages. But they were powerful enough to make their family relevant and endure to the present day.

However, after the rise of the Veora family hundreds of thousands of years ago, this family had gone through its last great crisis, having since lost much of its past prestige.

Currently, the strongest of them was this level 85 man in front of Minos, one of the leaders of one of the few subordinate families of this Goddess of Life lineage that still existed.

The others in the surrounding area were mainly subordinates as well, with the only ones related to the Goddess of Life being those three 'youngsters.'

They belonged to generation 201, starting from the cousins of the Goddess of Life who had survived then!

Thinking about the future of those three, that man could not put aside the lines of 'Edgar,' who, at the moment, he no longer thought was lying or taking a chance on them.

"So Emperor Stuart got this inheritance..."

"No wonder his people are so strong!"

"Yes, if it weren't for our ancestry, they wouldn't be so great!"

"We must search for what belongs to us, elder!"

The men in the surrounding area exclaimed while the three nobles did not show so much agitation since they knew that Emperor Stuart was part of the territory of the Spiritual Church.

It would be complicated to act against him!

But then 'Edgar' scolded them. "I would not advise you to act against this person. First, he is someone who is willing to trade and grow together with talented people. So if you ally with him, you can get what you're looking for without risking it.

On the other hand, he is not weak at all... I recently heard that he reached the end of the 8th stage and even fought against high-level Spiritual Sages.

I wouldn't challenge him gratuitously. He doesn't seem like the forgiving type of person."

"Do you think we are afraid of him?" The level 81 woman asked. "He is only the leader of a state with Spiritual Saints. What is there to fear in him?"

"There are currently Spiritual Sages in the Black Plain Empire, my lady." 'Edgar' said. "In any case, that is up to you to decide. I'm just here to tell you this story I heard from someone close to him."

"So you don't know him?" The level 80 young man asked.

"I do, just as anyone at my level in the Flaming Empire would know..." Minos said so as not to appear to be friends with 'this' person. "But other than business, I've never had the opportunity to talk more with him."

"Sigh... It's a shame." That fellow said, thinking that if 'Edgar' was Minos' friend, they could kidnap this merchant and make Emperor Stuart pay a ransom.

But the level 85 old man took 'Edgar's' words into consideration, and before deciding how to act against Minos, he put in mind to investigate that man's situation. If this person were so dangerous, he would plot some plan to approach him safely alongside those nobles!

Before that, he wanted to hear more from 'Edgar,' to gather more information regarding both Minos and what this merchant had managed to hear about Emperor Stuart's time in the Goddess of Life's inheritance.

"What else have you heard about this so-called inheritance? Any ancient history? I'm curious to know about what happened to that person."

Minos returned to talking about what he had heard at the Goddess of Life's inheritance. "Hmm, it seems that she cultivated to the limit but failed to advance to the 11th stage..."

They would continue talking in that place for a whole afternoon, with the people descended from the Goddess of Life's family listening attentively to Minos' every word.

Meanwhile, the beasts in Minos' group did not rush him, amused by the story after realizing that those humans would not face them.

When night came, Minos finished talking about the Goddess of Life and how little he wanted those people to know about him.

He wanted Abby to find these people to help them a little, for she and he had benefited greatly from that specialist's help.

But Minos was a person who was always interested in benefiting himself, even when he was trying to help others!

Since these people were 9th-stage experts, he wanted to bring them to his side to strengthen the Black Plain Empire!

Anyway, at the end of the day, he managed to say goodbye to that group without any significant problems, hoping to hear from them once he returned to the Black Plain Empire.

Soon he and his fellow travelers set off, returning on their way to this state's border with the Western Empire!

...

Meanwhile, in the capital of the Eastern Empire...

After a few hours of preparing for what the emperor had asked him earlier, the strongest seer of this state was in this city to try to find out about the status of the map of the Seraphim Ancient Sarcophagus.

After finishing organizing his post at the headquarters of the imperial forces, he began his attempts to visualize the future related to that map.

To do this, this man sat down in front of ten glowing crystals, soon making them shine intensely with his powerful techniques.

He was not as capable as the prophet who had warned Vico about the challenges he would face in the future, but this man was not far behind that person's level.

So when he started, instead of immediately suffering from the protection of whoever was behind the disappearance of the key to that ancient place, he managed to sink his consciousness into the river called time.

There, he saw scenes from the future passing quickly through his eyes, noticing several incomprehensible things which gave him a sense of urgency.

For the first time in his life, he felt fear trying to predict something!

But after these scenes from the future passed quickly through his eyes, this man found himself in a cloudy, cold place with the smell of blood.

There, he saw several people on one side, relatively young and of lower levels than their opponents, with multitudes on the other side and a single man between the two parties.

They all had cultivations above level 95 and seemed to be about to clash.

However, just as this man tried to identify the faces in the surroundings, a golden glow appeared in the skies above him.

...