Upon realizing Minos' abilities, the people on Mortimer's side paled.
The fact that a Spiritual Sage was so much stronger than Spiritual Saints was not their amount of energy. That characteristic was even relevant, but what was more critical was spatial manipulation.
Through this ability, a Spiritual Sage surrounded by weaker enemies but capable of injuring them could either flee or slowly attack these people until they reached their goals.
But if a Spiritual Sage lost such an ability, they could be outnumbered!
They would have no way to escape other than to use their speed to fly away.
But people could get in their way, and even though they were faster than all their opponents, they could be prevented from escaping and end up in the terrible situation of suffering from their opponents' blows.
In this scenario, Mortimer could lose a lot, and worse, he would be unable to save his allies from danger.
Those high-level Spiritual Saints on Mortimer's side believed that their new leader would save them when they were in danger, similar to what had happened to Abe in the past.
Unfortunately for them, Minos had that surprise in store, and now they would be on their own in this place!
While they were shivering, some even regretting it, Minos' allies renewed their certainty about being on Minos' side.
So they were the first to show their Soul Avatars beyond Minos, followed by the many Spiritual Saints near the imperial palace.
Ruth and Gloria also activated their soul projections, placing themselves in a defensive position to protect Isabella and that woman's mother.
Minos wasted no time, and after his provocative words, he made all his techniques show themselves to those high-level Spiritual Saints and Mortimer.
Being at level 72, he had so much power in his control that he was almost at the same energy level as Mortimer!
Because of this, the moment the Devouring Art rings appeared in his domain, those Mortimer's companions immediately began to suffer.
This man would not suffer from this since his level was high enough that his energies would not get out of control because of Minos.
But still, he felt it as the gravity about him began to press on his position, making it difficult for him to move.
Minos also targeted him with the Infinite Dream and the Dark Sea putting those men against each other while degrading Mortimer's mental structures.
"It can't be!"
"No!"
"How is that possible?" The level 79 cultivators on Mortimer's side barely managed to activate their avatars when part of them was already under Minos' control.
But Mortimer managed to show his avatar in that place, causing a reddish projection of his soul to emerge from his body, one with three eyes, each a darker color than the rest of his body.
By activating his 8th technique, this cultivator felt less pressured by Minos. However, even so, he was still in a situation where he knew he had to be careful.
'You bastard!
You were hiding all this?' He clenched his fists in hatred, noting that the difference between Minos and him was not great.
He had an advantage, but that was on the order of less than a 1.5% difference!
At the same time, Minos had a terrible mind control ability that put even enemies at his disposal.
And with no way to escape from there, surrounded by dozens of high-level Spiritual Saints, Mortimer finally understood why Minos risked so much by staying in this place as bait.
However, he wouldn't think much of it and would soon start activating his own techniques to counter not only Minos but the many enemies already attacking him.
Mortimer had arrived at this place with 23 high-level Spiritual Saints, but of those numbers, 9 of them had turned against his group because of the Dark Sea.
Because of this, about 70 Spirit Saints between levels 77 and 79 were attacking him and his group.
Ten of them were dealing alongside the nine enemies who forcefully changed sides to face the remaining individuals.
At the same time, the rest were already on the outskirts of the Minos avatar's area of influence, launching attacks against Mortimer.
They knew that this would be a battle that Minos could not win alone and were following his plans even after noticing how powerful Emperor Stuart already was.
Thus, Mortimer found himself surrounded by dozens of powerful attacks while being pressured by someone almost as strong as himself.
He tried to move to escape the area of influence of Minos' avatar. Still, the emperor's speed was superior to his!
Mortimer had only a Golden-grade technique, but this was a cultivation technique, not a movement technique, neither defensive nor offensive.
Because of this, only his cultivation speed and control over spiritual energy could be affected by the quality of this technique, placing him in terms of speed below even Minos!
Therefore, he promptly failed to escape his opponent's grasp.
But not only that. When Minos moved, he used the Indestructible Body to strengthen the parts of his Soul Avatar and then kicked hard against the stomach of Mortimer's projection.
That made him feel pain and temporarily put him in a state of vulnerability to the many attacks coming his way.
These attacks were not enough to put his life in danger, but together they could hurt him and lower his resistance to Minos.
He then tried to dodge those attacks after receiving Minos' kick but failed to do so satisfactorily with many of those blows.
"Ouch!"
This Spiritual Sage expressed pain for the first time since reaching the 9th stage, slowly beginning to regret having chosen a frontal attack.
Abe had failed, but this Vogel fellow had lasted years against Minos and had almost seriously wounded the Black Plain forces.
But he had tried to do differently to avoid the same failure and ended up in this terrible situation.
Spatial Sword!
Minos danced with a spiritual sword, launching several mighty blades toward Mortimer's avatar.
These blades disappeared, traveling through space, changing directions so the target wouldn't understand where the attack was coming from.
Minos' avatar could stabilize space in his domain, but this did not apply to techniques launched by his avatar.
Hence, such an ability worked in his domain!
The Spiritual Sage watching all this from afar, felt a chill run through his body as he noticed what was happening, realizing that Minos could already face him and put him in danger!
He was much stronger than Mortimer, but it would not be easy to withstand such pressure!
'Unbelievable!
Minos has already achieved such power... It looks like I'll have to report this to my superiors sooner than planned!'
While that Spiritual Sage of the Eastern Empire was changing his plans, the first Spiritual Saints in Mortimer's group needed the help of his leader.
"Sect master!
Save me! Please, save me!" The supreme elder of the Saints Killing Sect shouted in desperation as two members of his own sect attacked him mercilessly.
...
