The Rise of the Black Plain

Hours after leaving Dry City, Maximillian was already in the Evergreen Empire with Darren and his three hostages.

This man knew these lands well and had easily found his way there. However, after a few million years, some things had changed, and this had slowed him down a bit.

Anyway, after some investigative work, this man found his way to the capital of the empire, where he was watching from afar at the moment.

There were methods of one hiding his tracks. Still, unfortunately, Maximillian did not have what was necessary with him to hide his aura. Because of this, he decided to observe that place from afar before showing himself.

From where he was, he could see the whole city and the people there, but one in that place would have difficulty finding him without purposely looking for him.

So while their group was floating 50 kilometers away from the surface, he was watching in the direction of the most majestic temple of the Spiritual Church.

'Hmmm, this place has really weakened since my time. When I left, 3 level 99 Demigods were in this city.' He thought as he remembered the information he had collected in Dry City and associated it with the reality he knew.

'Why has the empire weakened so much? Is it just a bad generation, or is there something else behind it?' He wondered, curious to see the situation in the Divine Continent and find out if things were strange there too.

But he left that doubt to resolve at another time and soon focused his attention on the current Supreme Pontiff, someone at the absolute peak of level 99, just like him.

'This man is not far from the end of his life, and at the level he is at, he will soon go into seclusion to try to advance. Perhaps I should simply wait for him to begin his seclusion to kill him easily? Or should I approach him and make him my subordinate?'

Seeing an opponent's abilities just by watching him was extremely difficult, even more so when one had such a high cultivation level. So even though Maximillian was extremely powerful, he couldn't estimate the Supreme Pontiff's strength for sure.

He was confident in himself of defeating any human enemy because of the Trident of God in his hands. Still, he preferred to avoid wearing down the Church, his organization.

'What to do?' He looked at the imperial palace and saw only level 97 men among the strongest there. 'None of them dress like the emperor... That means that either the emperor is cultivating or he has recently died.

Hmm, that must not be the case, or the whole continent would know about such a thing. The city would also be in chaos, and more imperial family experts would be in the palace.'

His eyes sharpened, sensing that such a person was already in the Spatial Kingdom, cultivating to advance.

'That's a problem... But he is out of my reach. I hope he doesn't have Divine medicine on hand. If he does, I hope he dies trying to advance!' He clenched his fists, thinking of what to do.

But he couldn't do that for much longer. While watching this city, the Supreme Pontiff suddenly moved, appearing in the blink of an eye in front of this group of five people.

Maximillian had made a mistake. He did not know about the innate ability of the current Supreme Pontiff of the Spiritual Church!

This level 99 man who had just appeared in front of Maximillian had an ability capable of creating a domain up to 100 kilometers away from him, where he was omniscient!

In this way, Minos' ally had been taken by surprise!

"Visitor, what are you doing in my city? Why were you watching me?" Duncan Evergreen asked while he had a serious expression on his face.

Janus saw the face of the Supreme Pontiff of the Spiritual Church and felt doubly worse, seeing this enemy of his father, who would surely kill him if he had the chance.

Meanwhile, Darren looked with interest at that man, seeing that Duncan seemed to be preparing to fight.

'That will be a magnificent battle.' He imagined a fight between the three of them.

Maximillian momentarily looked silently into Duncan's eyes and smiled bitterly, feeling his mistake. "You have a strange ability, Supreme Pontiff. I didn't expect to be caught watching you, haha.

What do I do with you now? I was still planning how to proceed with my plans."

"Your plans?" That man frowned his eyebrows even more while feeling tense.

He clearly felt that this opponent was not even a little weaker than him. At the same time, this strange person had a weapon that even he felt chills run down his spine as he watched it.

Meanwhile, several elders from the Spiritual Church and the Evergreen family noticed the Supreme Pontiff's movement and moved to that location.

In the blink of an eye, 30 cultivators between levels 97 and 98 were in the surrounding area circulating their energies, preparing for a fight against these two newly arrived colossi.

"Maximillian, what are we going to do? We will have trouble with this many experts in the surrounding area." Darren said in a low voice, beginning to feel nervous.

Fighting against just Duncan would be magnificent, but with so many specialists, their chances would not be good!

Maximillian looked at the surroundings and saw the expressions of fear and concern on those faces.

He sighed and said. "My friends, calm down. I am not an enemy but an ally. My name is Maximillian Flamen, and no, I am not an impostor, but the real one, Maximus' rival."

"Impossible! Maximillian died a long time ago!" The Supreme Pontiff exclaimed, refusing to believe such nonsense.

The people in the area didn't believe it immediately either, and this man who should be dead decided to reveal the truth.

"If you know who I am, you know my innate ability. Well, I combined my ability with a time array and spent all these years sleeping inside the Seraphim Ancient Sarcophagus.

Luckily, young Minos freed me days ago.

He can confirm who I am."

Gulp!

"Minos Stuart?" A Church elder, level 98, asked in incomprehension.

But Duncan realized that this was no lie and that such a thing explained very well how Minos had gotten the support of a level 99 Spiritual Demigod.

As for Darren, no one cared much about a beast at that level around Maximillian. He was the least of these people's worries, and this living 'mummy' could easily explain his origin.

"That... How? Why?" The Supreme Pontiff finally asked, deciding to believe that this man was an ancient member of the Church.

"About that..."