Six days later...
In one area, between the borders of the Flaming Empire, Flowers Kingdom, and Evergreen Empire, a small floating island was suffering from strong energy fluctuations in the surrounding area.
The spiritual energy in that area was condensing and 'rushing' towards the interior of such an island, forcing its structures, while the spiritual pressure of the area was immense.
At the same time, a vortex in the sky was bringing clouds from far away in that area into the vicinity, while the winds and storms would make anyone below level 70 tremble with fear.
No, in fact, anyone at level 69 who was out there would even be in danger of being killed by the current atmospheric phenomena!
But in the midst of this, a man was sitting inside this floating island, in a lotus position, receiving all this spiritual energy penetrating this place.
At the same time, the Natural Laws were condensing in the surroundings so powerfully that spatial cracks were opening near that person.
Amid this, he was absorbing more of these Laws, increasing his understanding while evolving the quality of his soul for the breakthrough that was nearing completion.
Seeing that from a distance, the supreme elder of the Saints Killing Sect smiled devilishly, seeing that the sect master was about to reach level 80!
'Finally, we'll be able to stop hiding!' He thought about it, remembering the humiliations the people in his sect had gone through in recent years. 'With the sect master's breakthrough, we will take revenge on the cursed Grey Clouds Sect, kill the disgraced Minos, and get back to the plans to dominate the empire!'
'It will only be a matter of time before the sect becomes the biggest organization in this region!'
Amidst the supreme elder's thoughts, Mortimer finally reached the apex!
Crack!
A shrill sound spread through the surroundings, leaving his body and reaching places kilometers away from where he was standing.
After a few moments, the chaos in the surroundings quieted a bit, and that man sitting on the ground, dressed in bone armor, opened his eyes, smiling.
"Level 80!" He shouted as he felt his soul stabilizing at this new level and realizing his spatial control.
"Finally, at level 80!" He said again, looking down at his hands and feeling a power he had never thought would be so majestic.
"Hahahaha, just you wait, you bastard! I will, in an instant, rip your head off and wipe out your sect!"
Upon hearing those beautiful words, the supreme elder flew to his leader and bent one of his knees in front of Mortimer. "Sect Master, congratulations on becoming a Spiritual Sage. I hope your leadership will be long."
Mortimer looked at the supreme elder of his sect, who had made all this possible by saving Gavin in place of his wife.
He nodded and said. "From now on, we will avenge all the dead and take whatever we wish."
"Yes, I hope to continue serving you and witness all of this, sect master!"
"Right, let's do that. But first, how long until the meeting of local leaders? Is there still time for us to join that event?" Mortimer questioned.
"Yes, sect master." The supreme elder replied. "There are still 42 hours until the start of the local leaders' meeting."
"Oh? Then let's get going. I want to see the surprised expression of those bastards when they see me, hahaha."
...
One day later...
The day before the meeting of local leaders, practically all those invited by the Edwardstone family were already in Payton.
Conversations had been going on for the past few days, and a lot of business had already taken place between local powers participating in this event.
During this period, the Gray Clouds Sect had formalized some business deals started by Minos weeks ago in Clouds City.
Meanwhile, Minos was at Isabella's side, quietly living in wait for this event so that he could return to the Black Plain Empire.
He had already been notified by his men in that region of the arrival of three visitors from the Evergreen Empire, members of the Blood Triangle Pirates, who were in his state looking for him.
Minos already knew what these people's visit was about and wanted to return to his state to settle this. So he could not wait for this formal occasion to begin.
The Black Plain was not in danger at the moment, but it was not good for him to have those people staying in his territory for too long.
In the last few days, due to the information about the visit of those three and his current level, Minos had managed to get Joseph and Margot to pass him some information about that pirate group.
Due to this, he finally found out the origin of it, as well as the fact that such a group works for the imperial family of the Evergreen Empire, the main faction of the Spiritual Church.
The current Supreme Pontiff was Emperor Evergreen's son, so several future complications could arise for him and Gloria.
As for what they were looking for with that map, Joseph and Margot could not help Minos much with that since even they did not have access to such high-level information. But they knew it was somehow related to the Seraphim Ancient Sarcophagus.
The Seraphim Ancient Sarcophagus was a place where several ancient experts of the Spiritual Church had been buried in the remote past. However, for some reason, this institution stopped using this place a few million years ago.
When they stopped using such a place, they abandoned it for good, having, after a few hundred thousand years, lost its location.
Therefore, the current generation of Church members had no idea where this place was and the importance of locating something that had been abandoned by themselves.
But no matter what, Minos knew it was no simple matter since people as powerful as the force behind the Spiritual Sage who protected Abe were searching for the map in the Spatial Kingdom.
As such, he had his worries!
But while waiting for the start of the event to be led by the Edwardstone family, Minos and all the experts in this city were surprised by something unexpected.
As they were preparing for the start of the big meeting that would take place the next day, the 8th-stage specialists in Payton felt a spatial crack opening in the local skies in the middle of this city.
When this happened, they all realized that a 9th-stage specialist was about to appear there, coming from a distant place through a wormhole.
Hence, most of them left the streets or the buildings they were in and looked in the direction of that opening in space.
When they did so, in a matter of seconds, they were shocked, open-mouthed, and wide-eyed when Mortimer Burgess, level 80, appeared next to 10 elders of the Saints Killing Sect.
"My dear colleagues, princess, I am here for tomorrow's meeting, haha." That man said before identifying Minos' aura and looking toward this level 70 fellow.
"Minos Stuart, I see you took advantage of the time you had to get stronger..."
"Not bad."
...
