Three weeks after Minos and Abby arrived in Mirabella...
After signing agreements with the upper echelon of House Carline, Minos and Abby had departed the Kingdom of the End and made their way back to the Black Plain.
Since the capital of the Kingdom of the Waves was on the way and Minos already had an interest in seeing how this place was doing, he and Abby had in this period traveled most of their way between Mirabella and Athela.
However, even though weeks had passed, Minos was still at level 54, only a few steps away from achieving his advancement to the next level.
He and Abby had been cultivating and training hard over the past few days, even training with the Elite Squad soldiers in the Spatial Kingdom and the Feathered Serpent, Virtus.
But at the point he was, Minos would need to constantly fight with Spiritual Emperors to stimulate faster advances. Unfortunately, however, there were no such people in this region, and he could only rely on his excellent cultivation speed within the Spatial Kingdom.
In any case, that king already knew that his next breakthrough would happen in a month at most, probably before he and Abby arrived in Dry City.
As for what he would do to boost faster advances in the future, this man was already thinking about returning to military exercises with his soldiers.
The Black Plain Army was growing daily, and the number of Spiritual Kings in this organization could pass 200 quickly. But, at the same time, it would not take long before there was a legion of regional peak cultivators, which could provide some challenges for him.
After all, unlike Minos' ordinary opponents, the high-level soldiers of his army had Silver-grade techniques. But on the other hand, many of them had years of experience in collective fighting. Consequently, fighting them could provide a much more significant challenge to King Stuart than doing the same against ordinary enemies!
With that, he intended to use his men to improve his cultivation speed in this region as much as possible until at least he reached a minimum strength to leave this large territory of his safely.
In theory, Spiritual Kings, like Ruth, could travel relatively safely between regions. But this was due not to their strength but their knowledge and means. Regional Spiritual Kings, for example, did not have the means or the knowledge to leave that region safely. Therefore, even those stronger than the fiancée of Minos would not dare to leave those areas.
As for the means Ruth or others could use if they had crystals and information, there was the possibility of traveling through wormholes or teleportation arrays.
In any case, Minos did not want to use such means unnecessarily. On the contrary, he wanted to experience the cultivation world outside the northern region while at the same time taking advantage of the opportunities and challenges of a more straightforward method of travel.
With this, he knew that he was not prepared at the moment and would face the same dangers as regional Spiritual Kings who ventured outside this region.
In other words, it would be a significant risk to leave his territory for the time being!
On the other hand, the Black Plain was in its primary stage of development, and there was much for him to do and sort out in the coming years. Thus, he aimed not to leave this region until he at least reached level 60 and improved the strength of his army and state!
But he was not worried about his advancements. Having no strong opponent would delay his advancements to the level 60 by weeks, at most a few months. As such, he was at ease with the possibility of training alongside his soldiers until he reached that level!
In that way, the young man, who was already at the peak of level 54, was currently flying over the vicinity of Athela, sitting behind Abby on Maida's back.
"My love, I think that map is related to this place, no?" Abby broke the silence as she looked back and asked.
"Oh?" Minos' eyes widened in surprise that Abby had noticed that without him saying anything.
"I've felt my connection to that map increase over the past few days. It's as if it's showing me that we're close to that place marked with an 'x.'" She explained.
"Sigh..."
After sighing for a moment, Minos was honest with his woman. "I didn't think that would happen... But, yes, that map is of those areas of the Kingdom of the Waves."
"So..."
"What are we going to do?"
He hugged her waist tighter and closed his eyes, thinking for a moment about this question. "Well, let's look for local information."
"Since this map indicates a place in the vicinity of this kingdom's capital, perhaps the family that has ruled this place for hundreds of thousands of years has some hint." He said as Abby watched him, waiting for her man's decision.
She genuinely was curious to find out what such a thing led to. But Abby felt that without Minos' consent, she could not go ahead to try to answer her questions. So, she would follow whatever he decided!
"Do you think the Walker family might have some information?" She asked.
"It's hard to say. They could either know something or have no idea about it. After all, even the Scourges of the Devil did not discover that map inside their 'house'..."
"But given how long the Walker family has ruled this territory, they are our best chance of getting some information."
"In any case, if we don't find anything with them, we'll let the matter cool off for a while. Then, let's return to the Black Plain, take care of our state, cultivation, and family."
"Sooner or later, we can return and resolve our doubts." He said calmly, noting Abby's satisfied smile.
"That's good too."
Abby wanted to resolve this issue, but her desire to have a family with Minos was much more significant. Hence, hearing his words, she was more than satisfied with how her man wanted to handle the situation.
With that decided, the two of them headed towards that city less than 50 kilometers from where they were.
...
At the same time as the most important couple of this region were flying over the vicinity of Athela, another group of migrants had just arrived in Dry City.
However, amidst the 25,000 individuals who had had the good fortune to be able to join the local labor forces, someone Minos had met previously was there, hopeful but also regretful.
After almost nine years since he had met Minos, Peter, Barbara, Joey, Robin, and Abby, Milton, level 47, had joined this city that he had once refused...
At that time, after being freed from slavery by Minos' group that attacked the then Chambers family base, Milton had declined the invitation of the ruler of the Black Plains to come here. Instead of doing so, he had gone back to his old village, where he had lived all this time.
However, with the war, Martin had discovered who his savior was and where Barbara, Joey, Robin, and Peter, his slaves' companions, were.
Peter particularly had not become someone common to appear on regional news since, for much of the war, he had not fought on the Black Plain. But Robin and Barbara had become warriors of regional renown, responsible for many regional specialists' deaths.
Because of this, Martin discovered what he had missed by refusing Minos' good offer at that time.
However, time had already passed, and there was no way to reverse his decisions. As such, he had waited until the moment when peace was re-established to make up for his lost time.
Thus, he had arrived in Dry City, coming from one of the villages now part of the great territory of the Black Plain.
"Sigh..."
"Looks like you still came here in the end, huh?" An elderly man said this as he looked in Milton's direction.
"Better late than never, I suppose..." Milton gave a dull smile as he saw old Joey in an army area, where migrants went through the primary interrogation to get permission to stay.
"Hahaha, well, those three are already Spiritual Kings, but if you try hard, you can still get close to them." Old Joey greeted that fellow with one of his hands. "Work hard and good luck."
"Thank you."
