The Rise of the Black Plain

While Barbara, Robin, and Joey spent the evening conversing, Vivian was going to visit a specific expert in her hometown, where the Hayes family's headquarters were.

Primrose was a big city, a metropolis full of life and activity, day or night.

The local trade could be considered one of the most developed in the region, where anyone could find array masters, alchemists, blacksmiths, and many other high-level professionals.

Unlike other cities in the Cromwell Kingdom, the Hayes family's town had hardly any involvement in the agricultural sector. Instead, this location was focused on producing different types of consumer goods, which could be related to spiritual professions or common professions.

The difference between these two types of professions was the use of spiritual techniques. In one, individuals needed to use specific techniques to produce consumer goods. As an example of this type, we have alchemy. On the other, there was no need to use spiritual techniques.

In the latter, all that was needed was the use of the cultivators' manual labor. And in this category, there were areas such as carpentry, civil construction, agriculture, etc.

Obviously, there were methods to produce consumer goods. For example, to build a carriage, there was a process involved in such a project, but this was more like a recipe, not spiritual techniques.

The spiritual energy of the cultivators could even facilitate these jobs. Still, it wasn't something crucial, as the unique techniques were, for example, for professions like blacksmithing.

Anyway, due to the different development that Primrose had chosen, this place had developed all kinds of the non-spiritual profession, which produced many items. Things like ships, carriages, furniture, clothes, everyday artifacts, and miscellaneous items made people's lives easier.

Therefore, this place had become a commercial center, which developed exuberantly from the many types of commercial activities.

There was a common knowledge in the Cromwell Kingdom that if something was produced in Primrose, the quality was guaranteed!

The great competition had driven the best manufacturers in that location to reach a high level where their products could rank among the best in this region.

Therefore, this place had grown so much, even without agriculture, mining, or slave labor, which many powers of the Cromwell Kingdom generally used.

And in part, the peculiar characteristic of the Hayes came precisely from this path of development...

Anyway, Vivian was at this moment in a house, in a quieter neighborhood of Primrose.

In this place, trees about 15 meters high decorated the streets with their pink leaves while releasing a fragrant fragrance in the environment.

There were few residences in this part of town. Yet, it was all of a high standard, from which guards could be seen watching from time to time, and high-level items decorated the facades of many of those houses.

And no wonder, this was one of the luxury neighborhoods of this place, where many professionals of grade-2 in this city attended or lived. There were also those wealthiest entrepreneurs in town, ordinary cultivators who owned large companies specializing in consumer goods.

Anyway, Vivian was about to meet one of the few grade-2, medium-level local seers who lived in this area. This individual could be considered quite reclusive and rarely left his home to serve clients.

Because of that, people like this young woman had to come to this specialist's residence if they wanted to know their futures...

'Hope I get something useful out of this!' Vivian thought to herself as she sat on a sofa, right after arriving at that place.

There were some strange paintings on the walls of that place, which sometimes stimulated the spiritual energy in this young woman's body, while lush plants were strategically distributed around there.

Finally, while she was waiting, a middle-aged woman, wearing a long cotton dress, plain and not too flashy, came out of a room and walked over to Vivian.

"Young lady, you can come with me. The master will take care of you." She said softly.

Hearing this, Vivian soon followed this woman, walking for a few meters, until she reached a room on the other side of the building, where a single person was waiting for her.

An old man was sitting on the floor, on a cushion, behind a low table, which had six strategically placed crystal balls.

One, the largest, appeared to be in the center, while five others, the same size, circled it in what seemed to be a pentagon. There were some markings around them, while a circle was drawn below them, where white lines connected each of these balls.

That was the spiritual set of artifacts used by seers in the Spiritual World.

Orbs of Fate!

These orbs were the product of the seers' spiritual refinement, using special techniques and some rare materials from the Spiritual World.

Due to the unique way of cultivating these professionals, when they moved from one stage to another, they would have the opportunity to produce these items. And by doing that, their new spiritual techniques would be directly related to the new orbs, almost as if they were the same.

In short, each ball meant a stage of cultivation that the seer was in, that is, the proficiency of these professionals. The more orbs a seer could use, the greater the accuracy of his visions!

It was said that when a seer reached the 11th stage of cultivation, they could see the future clearly as if it were a lucid dream. But, on the other hand, at each step below that, the quality of the divination would be less and less, to the point where only a few hints could be seen, in lower stages.

Anyway, other than that, there was nothing else in that place, apart from a glass window, which overlooked the garden of that house.

Finally, the old man sitting on the floor, with eyes closed, 'awakened' and looked in Vivian's direction. "It's been a long time since I've seen a Hayes family member in my home. Haha, little girl, sit here, tell me what worries you." He said as he ran his wrinkled hands over his beard.

Finally, Vivian sat on the man's opposite side, while the woman from before had left them, having closed the door when she left.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Payne. This young woman here is called Vivian, and I'm looking for your guidance." She respectfully said as she lowered her head slightly to Payne.

"Hmm, I imagine so. I've been hearing the recent news of your family declaring war on the Chambers family. Is that what you want to know about?" The old figure asked while looking a little regretful.

"No, well, it's related in some way, I think. Anyway, I recently met an unusual person. I think that somehow this meeting was not a coincidence, so I look for answers about it."

"Oh? I heard about the former young master of the Chambers family in that incident, which took place in the northwest base of this organization. Was it this person who killed him?" He muttered under his breath.

"It doesn't matter. I'll see when we start." After that, he spread both his hands on that table and said. "Young girl, put your hands over mine. Relax, don't try to oppose what I'm going to do next."

"OK." She responded promptly, already following this individual's instructions.

After placing her hands over this old man's, palm up and completely relaxed, the old man continued to speak. "Before we start, I want you to think about this person you're looking for. Anything, spiritual techniques, his tone of voice, ways of behaving, etc."

"OK."

After that, the time it started to flow when little by little, bluish energy began to envelop Vivian and Payne's hands. It was following around the two of them, gradually concentrating close to that old man's face, specifically around his eyes.

As for Vivian, she just felt a chill in her hands as she continued to think about what she had seen earlier.

Finally, the six orbs began to glow, one after the other, emitting blue lights while appearing to blink, as a light bulb would before it burned out.

At the same time, Payne had his vision!

First, he had seen part of what had happened that day at that base, where many people had previously fought. Then, in the second moment, when he felt the person Vivian was thinking of, he could only see a blur.

Even though he could see clearly the techniques and outlines of the other people in that scene, he couldn't see the shape of Minos' clothes, nor could he even see the effects of this young man's techniques.

Finally, while feeling that something was very wrong here, he tried to touch the blurry image of Minos to predict this young man's fate.

Crack!