The Rise of the Black Plain

With the Black Plain Army's dominance over the Maritime City, it wasn't long before some of the weaker soldiers in the army began to spread the Dry City in that location.

However, they were not doing this careless. No, the army's plan to lure the inhabitants of that town to the Dry City was similar to what had happened at the time of Minos' agreement with Mirya.

So, the soldiers who would have to do this work would attract only the less talented and unemployed people so that they would come to Dry City to find out what opportunities they would have in such a place.

And since the soldiers had taken control of that city, they now had all the data necessary for this kind of operation to occur with little risk of trouble reaching them!

But besides the possibilities of success that this operation had, there was a certain amount of risk involved. However, this was something that young Stuart had expected and was willing to accept. After all, his town needed more inhabitants in order for his organization's chances of success to be more significant.

Hence, there was no room to leave this kind of action for a second moment. It had to happen now, or the next few years would be challenging for the Dry City!

...

While the propagation operation was beginning in Maritime City, Minos was in his office, resolving some issues related to the recent problems and this matter.

"... With that, young master, we already have about 300 Corporals in Maritime City doing the Dry City service." An administrative soldier of the army finished reporting such a thing while sitting next to two other people on the opposite side of Minos' table.

"I see... What does the army have as a projection for this migration? What will be the growth rate of our city's population in the coming weeks?" Minos asked.

The same person from before then spoke again. "Well, considering what happened in the City of Waters a few years ago and the Maritime City's circumstances, we predict that the Dry City will have 1,000 to 3,000 new citizens every week."

"Those numbers should start low for the first two or three weeks, but after that, they should be around those values, or even higher."

"That's good. Let's continue with the current plans for that place." Minos said before finally looking in the direction of one of those other two people standing there.

He then asked a woman who was dressed in the uniform of the local police. "Corporal Lulu, how is the situation with our 'visitors'? Did any of them die after they arrived in our town?"

The police had the same hierarchies as the army, and since that woman was already at the 4th stage of cultivation, young Stuart had called her Corporal.

That woman then shook her head in denial and said. "Fortunately, none of them have died so far, young master. Some are still in intensive care at the local hospital. But, many of them are already out of danger."

"As for the situation of the others, they will need some time to get used to the work in the agricultural fields..."

"But sooner or later, they will learn it by osmosis."1

"Hmm, that's better..." Minos said in a low voice as he thought about some possibilities he had in his mind. 'Maybe I should come to an agreement with the Gill family?'

'If word of Beatrice's group's battle with her enemies reaches the House Silva, the House Gill will have to bear the heavy hand of such organization. And as the enemy of my enemy...'

'Hmm, using the Gill family to weaken the Silva family's power a bit more doesn't seem like a bad idea...' He thought with a smile at the corners of his lips.

Young Stuart was not sure whether or not the Silva family would find out about the battle that had taken place in the northeastern part of the Black Plain. Because of this, he had not yet made any decision regarding this possibility.

However, he was already considering a future scenario where the Silva family would turn against the Gill family. He felt that House Gill would cease to be his enemy and become a potential ally in this situation.

After all, both would have enemies in common, and House Gill definitely could not survive the House Silva revenge!

And since the king would not prevent one side from seeking justice against the other, Lionel's family would be in serious trouble. Plus, even if such a noble organization didn't destroy them for the time being, because of the Black Plain issue, the disagreement had already formed, and it would be difficult for one side to forget things like that.

Hence, House Gill could be a natural ally for the Black Plain, and they would still be in a lower position than Minos' forces. So, this young man would not even have to promise things like he had promised the Stokes and Miller families!

But of course, Minos had in mind that the Silva family might never find out about that battle, and in this situation, House Gill would remain an enemy of the Black Plain.

For that reason, he had not yet taken the initiative to go and talk to Beatrice about that possibility.

But still, he had all this in mind and was already observing the situation to act as soon as possible!

He then said to that woman. "Let's leave them as they are for now. But keep an eye out for the possible arrival of crows coming from the Gill family. As soon as something changes in the kingdom, we will give our response to this situation."

"But let's permit that woman to send a letter to inform the Gill family about her arrival at the Dry City was smooth after such a battle."

"Uh, I will send Abby to check the contents of the letter later."

"OK, young master." The promptly said.

Finally, Minos looked eye to eye with that last person standing there, old Joey, and said. "In addition to those things we talked about before, I want the army to prepare an Official Letter."

Gulp!

"An Official Letter?" Joey and another soldier in that office said simultaneously, just after swallowing their saliva in nervousness.

"Where should we send it?" Joey asked as he looked at Minos as if he didn't want to hear the obvious.

"To the Brown family."

"Let's formalize our request for independence!"

...

Meanwhile, in the Red Valley...

Dozens of people were in a large hall of the Silva family headquarters, actively shouting and expounding their ideas of what should happen from now on.

After almost a month since the deaths of Urban and his teammates, this family had finally understood a little about the power of the adversaries responsible for such deaths.

However, such a thing had not been without cost. After all, in addition to those three Spiritual Kings who had died earlier, now five more of them had joined the group and left for the afterlife...

This was terrible!

Of the 41 Spiritual Kings that such a noble organization had just over a month ago, now only 33 remained... But contrary to what the numbers showed, the damage done to this family in this short time was much more significant than that.

After all, not only cultivators at the beginning of the 6th stage had died in this period. In addition, individuals who were already between levels 53 and 54 had also fallen on the Black Plain!

That, yes, was the biggest problem. That is, such people were scarce to find even in royal families since most of these cultivators were below level 53. But now they had lost all these people at once...

As for the Spiritual Generals, well, they still didn't know about this since no letter informing them about this or any survivors had arrived at the headquarters until the present moment. However, this would not matter much to the nobles of this power at the end of the day.

That was because such people could be easily replaced, and this power had tens of thousands of Spiritual Generals in its ranks... So, even if they knew the truth, that wouldn't be the end of the world for the nobles in the power of such an organization.

But in any case, even if they didn't know about the fate of their thousands of guards sent to the Black Plain, these people talking in that place knew some information.

That was because some letters had arrived at the headquarters, which described some of the problems encountered by those groups...

"Comrades, we must take vigorous action regarding this problem!"

"Yes!"

"We must seek help from our allies, and if necessary, we need to contact the royal family!"

"That's right!"

"Let's put the entire kingdom against that city!"

Pa! Pa!

"Order! Order!" Someone shouted while releasing his cultivation pressure to calm the tempers of the people in that place.

"Let's allow elder Milo to speak first..."