The Rise of the Black Plain

'He's already passed Neal's level and is very close to becoming a Spiritual King!' Celeste thought to herself as she stared at Minos in shock.

It was unusual for her to see a person of this young man's age on such a level in the north of the Central Continent!

After all, even among the numbers of the great sects of the FLaming Empire, only a few individuals achieved a similar feat.

However, Minos had a disadvantage that made his achievement even more frightening for this woman: he had been in a coma for six years!

That's why she was so shocked to feel Minos' level!

Still, as a person with hundreds of years of experience, Celeste didn't stay in this state of surprise for long and soon became serious about it. 'But at the end of the day, he's still only a level 48 cultivator. So, there's no way he can defeat me with this cultivation!'

And finally, Minos came to the center of the fighting stage while Neal was walking away from where he was with Celeste before, in silence, thinking about the whole situation.

'Damn, even though I'm feeling it, I can't believe such a thing is true! How did he get such a higher level of power?' He wondered, watching Minos and Celeste already positioned themselves in that spot.

Minos then pulled his medium-level grade-2 sword out of his spatial ring while looking at the woman, who was currently standing a few meters away from him..

She wore red armor that resembled a dress and matched perfectly with this mature woman's hair. And as Celeste felt the breeze gently blow her hair, she finally heard Minos' voice.

"You look like you're not taking this seriously... I'll give you a warning. If you take it easy, I could end up seriously injuring you in the first attack!"

"Then you'd better be careful, as I won't be responsible for your losses..." He commented calmly, not wanting to take advantage of this woman.

"Are you sure about that?" She questioned him.

"Hmm."

"Okay then, we can start whenever you want."

After that, Minos threw a small pendant in the air. When it finally touched the ground, both sides started to move, activating their techniques and heading towards each other.

Indestructible Body!

Devouring Art!

Explosive Steps!

Minos quickly began to move across that fighting stage, simultaneously, where the ring around him expanded until he reached the 100-meter mark away from him.

However, unlike what usually happened in this young man's previous fights, this time, the ring suddenly began to decrease in radius. At the same time, he stopped having Minos' body as his center and began to move closer to where Celeste was, placing her at its center.

Zum!

And realizing that, this Spiritual King realized how dangerous this opponent was.

'What is this? This...'

'Such a thing is stealing my energy at a very high speed!' So, she thought shockingly, noticing the decrease in her power after the ring began to circle her.

She didn't understand why this change had happened!

In the beginning, just when Minos had activated the technique, it had affected this woman's cultivation, and she had noticed her energies being diminished. However, everything had gotten worse when the ring decreased in size and approached her...

'Haha, I can barely control it, as this ability is typical of the 3rd phase of the Devouring Art, but it's still so amazing!' Minos thought, observing this situation.

After so many fights and so long training, he had already mastered the respective phases of each of his techniques. He only needed to reach the minimum energy level to increase their potential!

Precisely because of that, he was already able to have a little control over the future capabilities of his techniques, as in this example of the Devouring Art!

At the moment, although he couldn't control it perfectly, he was already able to absorb different amounts of energy from the people in his field of action. That is, he could already devour less of his allies' power, concentrating most of the devouring characteristic of this technique on certain opponents!

As a result, he could absorb much more significant amounts of spiritual energy from his target opponents by forcing the technique to absorb that person's energy more significantly!

As for the decrease in the visual effect of the technique, this was also related to this factor.

The ring was the source by which the technique worked, stealing energy from those around it. And with the ring downsized, Minos could make the technique work only on those he wanted, within the previous range.

Therefore, this ring had moved to the vicinity of the mature Celeste's body.

Finally, seeing that his technique worked very well to harm his opponent, Minos quickly started to approach Celeste, flexing his arms to attack her with his sword.

Spatial Sword!

Swooish!

"Shit!" Celeste muttered under her breath, noticing her body slowing and the air blade with a power equivalent to hers coming toward her.

Water Armor!

Immediately seeing that she couldn't escape Minos' relentless attack, Celeste used a great deal of her energy to activate her defensive technique. In doing so, her red armor increased in size, with blue parts that did not previously exist to protect her exposed body parts.

As she prepared to receive Minos' attack, this woman's thoughts ran, and she couldn't help but regret this fight. 'How is this possible? He can truly pressure me!'

Boom!

"Ahh!" She screamed for a moment, just after being hit in her right shoulder and taking three steps backward, trying to balance herself to keep from falling.

But she didn't have much time. Shortly after that, Minos appeared at her back, already swinging his sword vertically towards her unprotected back.

Vuup!

"What?" Minos exclaimed in surprise, seeing the movement of that woman, who at the most vulnerable moment, threw herself on her back on the ground, dodging his blow!

After doing a whole spin in the air, she finally positioned herself on the floor of that spot to deliver a hard kick to Minos' stomach.

'I caught you!' She thought about it, as she had a slight satisfied smile on her face.

Puff!

After that, Minos moved for a few meters until he stopped in the middle of that stage, feeling a slight numbness in his belly. "That wasn't bad!"

"But from your fighting style, I can already say that you've been living comfortably for many years..."

"That's why you can't beat me!" He commented this before activating his movement technique once more and running around this woman.

At the same time, he activates his attacking techniques repeatedly, sending several blades of air towards her.

Swooish!

Swooish!

...

Swooish!

After such a move, all of Celeste's defenses were knocked down when she eventually ran out of energy to continue the fight and landed on her back in that spot.

Such an attack by Minos had been critical for this woman, who hadn't had to worry about training so seriously since she had become a Spiritual King.

Relying on the superior cultivation level was very common in the northern part of the Central Continent, where people from that cultivation stage were usually the regional specialists, who rarely fought. And that had been Celeste's fault.

Against an opponent with a small amount of strength more significant than hers, she had been unable to defend herself from a 'killer attack' because she had become complacent, while the other side fought practically every day...

The fight was over, and Minos was the winner!

"Ahhh, you are a monster! How can you have no mercy against a woman like me?" She complained as she breathed hurriedly and felt the pain spread through her body.

She was not seriously injured, as this was a fight of people of the same level of proficiency, and it would be challenging for one side to hurt the other like that. But Celeste still had many superficial injuries all over her body that caused her discomfort.

"You lost. Do I need to warn you about what must be done?" Minos asked as he kept his sword into his spatial ring and stared at the woman.

"I will have my cultivation sealed and work in the agricultural fields until a spiritual judge comes to this town." She answered him with an embarrassed expression on her face.

Celeste had never thought she would be in such a degrading position in her life, especially after she had become a Spiritual King so long ago...