A few days after the news spread through the region...
Since the operation against the invading forces coming from Albano, Minos and his forces had been relatively quiet, without having any incidents or complications related to people coming from outside the region.
With this, the Black Plain had turned all its attention to the local expansion projects, the migration that had been intensifying, and the strengthening of the local forces.
After almost a year since Minos' advance to the 7th stage, the local population had increased by another few hundred thousand. Not only that, a dozen more cities had been built and now had their operations going on around this territory.
At the same time, as more and more people from the kingdoms in this region grew accustomed to their new lifestyles on the Black Plain, the population already residing there grew stronger.
With the availability of cultivation resources, job opportunities, and local competition, the older citizens kept moving forward, helping to build a stronger Black Plain.
To give an idea of how the local forces were strengthening, the number of local Spiritual Kings had already doubled in less than a year, reaching the 5,000 cultivators mark in this state alone.
At the same time, nine more Spiritual Emperors emerged among the ranks of Minos' soldiers, subordinates, vassals, and allies in this period. Among them, King Snow had been the first of King Stuart's guests to seize the opportunity to advance while cultivating in the underground cultivation room of the Dry City Cultivation Tower.
After him, Linette was the next to achieve this vital breakthrough, having enjoyed her time with Minos during this period and having fun with him for a few days until she returned to the Kingdom of the End a few days ago.
As for Jade, she struggled to achieve this, so she was still in Dry City training near that device with Minos' black hole.
But she was not far from getting her breakthrough and was even looking forward to leaving Dry City before her husband came to train there.
Anyway, many members of Minos' forces were training hard, some in seclusion, seeking their breakthroughs in this period of peace.
But while things were beginning to develop in this place, a new situation had just come to the attention of King Stuart!
...
In the royal throne room in the central part of Dry City...
Minos was with his queen receiving information from the army border posts at this instant, while Joey reported an unusual situation that had recently occurred.
"Your Grace, the Albano border post has reported that Spiritual Kings from that state are returning to travel towards the interior of our state again." He said as he looked at Minos.
"However, this time, one of the groups of Spiritual Kings has approached one of our posts and asked for permission to enter the Black Plain."
"What?" Abby asked in surprise, not expecting that there would be such a situation after tens of thousands of them had illegally entered the region.
It must be said that only recently had news regarding the extermination of those groups become popular in the region. Not only that, not everyone in Albano knew about it, so until now, smaller groups of criminals were still trying to enter the region.
These groups were not disturbing the peace because once they entered the region, they discovered what had happened to the more than 60,000 individuals who dared to covet the Black Plain.
Because of this, many entered and then peacefully left, which justified the absence of local concerns in this period.
But none of these people had tried to contact the local forces, which was why Abby was shocked to discover such a situation.
Minos was also interested and asked. "What exactly do they want? That we let criminals join our forces?"
Joey negatively shook his head and explained the details of the situation. "Your Grace, according to the information we have obtained, these people are not criminals or members of the underworld in Albano."
"On the contrary, these are ordinary people, some spiritual professionals, others workers, and even warriors. So, they are not searching for a place to take or take undeserved advantage. Instead, they are in search of a place to grow jointly."
"Oh?" Minos smiled upon hearing that, interested. "Are these people trustworthy? What guarantee do we have that they are not enemy spies?"
Old Joey said. "From the looks of it, Your Grace, they don't seem any more suspicious than the migrants we have been receiving from our region."
"Many of them are members of the same families and are accompanied by weaker people, unlike those criminals you see in groups of Spiritual Kings. They also seem to be of older ages, which matches their type of migrant profile."
"Finally, we discovered that many of them are related to low-level guards of the Albano royal family. According to them, some of their family members warned them about the region's advantages and encouraged them to come here." He finished.
"Royal family?" Abby looked at Minos as she became suspicious of this.
Minos thought for a moment and said to her. "It can't be what you are thinking. Albano's royal family would have to be crazy to place infiltrators in our state with such an easily discovered connection to them."
"That's probably like Joey said. Their relatives are trying to send them here as there are more opportunities here for people like that than in the competitive Albano kingdom."
"Makes sense..." She commented as she thought about the matter. "In any case, even if the West family is not trying to target us with this, it certainly means that they are aware of what we have."
"Those guards wouldn't keep a secret like that from their superiors just to give their family members a chance..."
Minos nodded in agreement. "Yes, they certainly know of our presence and probably are watching us from afar. But soon, the Church will punish the organization that dared to try to invade the region. So, the West family won't do anything crazy against us."
"At most, they will try to contact us to establish some friendly relationship. Other than that, they will probably prefer to keep their distance without getting involved with us."
"So, what will we do?" She asked her man, ignoring the other people in the surrounding area.
"We will wait. If they don't contact us, we won't look for trouble with this family unless they do something against us."
After that, silence filled the royal throne room for a few moments until Joey asked. "And what will we do with these migrants, Your Grace? They don't look dangerous, in my opinion."
"Hmm, we will welcome them outside our main territory," Minos commented after thinking about it. "Let them come into the Red Valley and start living there."
"We'll pass on some services for them to help improve that area, and those who do well will have the opportunity to enter our main territory."
"But remind them of the local rules to avoid misunderstandings."
"Yes, Your Grace!"
After Joey and the other soldiers left that area, Abby stood up and sat on her husband's lap before asking. "Do you think this will create problems? In the next six months, we will leave for the Kingdom of the Waves, and after that, we will leave the region..."
"Well, I honestly don't think so. With the news that has broken in the region and what the Spiritual Church is supposed to do soon, I think most of the dangers to Black Plain will be blocked." He sincerely replied as he hugged her waist.
"Besides, by the time we leave, Emlyn will probably be close to level 63, and we'll have dozens of Spiritual Emperors. So, I think the region will be fine in our absence."
She nodded upon hearing that. "But what about that enemy behind the Spiritual Saint? He'll probably back off for the time being, but I don't believe our problems with them are over."
"Neither do I. So, when we're leaving the region, we'll pay a little visit to Vogel to test that woman's theory. We'll capture someone important from that family, and you'll get him to talk."
"Oh? Won't that be risky?"
"Probably, but with my relationship with Gloria being approved by the Church, we'll have an alternative exit if we get caught doing something..." He laughed, already thinking about how to use the advantage of becoming an outside member of that organization.
