Three weeks later...
After the arrival of the envoys from the Sista kingdom, the low-level grade-4 spiritual judge arrived in Dry City and confirmed Minos and Hope's agreements. After a week in that place, those people returned to their state, having learned and experienced much of the Black Plain.
With their departure, the capital returned to normal, with people coming and going from the Spatial Kingdom, but Minos spent most of his time outside his cultivation shrine.
He was waiting for the arrival of the two people who had made a deal with him about ten years ago to finally give his final refusal of the request to partner with the Blood Triangle Pirates.
Because of this, he could not stay long in the Spatial Kingdom and was taking advantage of the time he had to deal with the affairs of his state and keep up with the progress of the wormhole ports.
After weeks since the start of creating this, Oswald and his fellow worker had managed to create the first travel corridor of the Black Plain Empire!
This corridor connected the capital of Vogel with Dry City and had a detour that led to the capital of Cromwell, a place relevant to the empire.
Oswald and the other Spiritual Sage were now focused on developing the corridor connecting the capitals of Waves and End, which would be even larger than this part already completed but would greatly change the empire.
Meanwhile, Vogel, Cromwell, and the core of the Black Plain Empire were already taking advantage of this first part of the local wormhole port network, with people and cargo moving through them.
In the Flaming Empire, things were also developing well for the emergence of their network of wormhole ports. The emperor had already settled with Oswald on connecting the states of both.
As such, Harold and Milo were working to build a corridor between Payton and Vogel's capital, something that would revolutionize both states, former mortal enemies on the continent.
But news of the actions of the emperors of these two states did not remain a 'secret' for long. Soon the leaders of Albano, Rosser, and Blackrock were aware of these new possibilities of their neighbors.
...
In the capital of Albano...
At this instant, Albano's and Rosser's queen and King Blackrock were gathered in a hall together with several of their trusted men.
They were already aware that the Black Plain Empire and the Flaming Empire each had 2 Spiritual Sages in their forces, both sides working to facilitate the movement of people and resources through their territories.
They had also received an invitation from Minos to join the regional integration he initiated, something that could connect all their states and solve several of their problems.
Because of this, these three people were now meeting to address this issue and decide together whether or not to accept Emperor Stuart's proposition.
"What do you think about that?" King Blackrock asked those two women.
He couldn't deny that having wormhole ports between their states was very interesting. To get an idea, he had spent an entire day traveling through teleportation arrays to get to this city. But not only that, but this sovereign had also spent over 500 high-grade crystals just to come to this city with his men.
That was not an insignificant amount!
They and their men could have spent a fraction of that through wormholes and reached this place in less than 30 minutes!
But that wasn't even the best thing about this travel option. The best of all was not for people but for cargo!
Cargoes were not sent through teleportation arrays because they had too much weight and volume, making transporting them by these alternatives impossible. That was also the case for beasts unable to change into their humanoid form.
As such, cargo and beasts had to travel by water, air, or land, a type of alternative that was much slower, inefficient, and more costly than via wormholes.
With this option, it would be cheaper and faster to send and receive resources!
Queen West then said. "Well, our relations with the Flaming Empire are no longer as hostile as in the past. So even if this alternative connects us to that kingdom more internally, it won't change anything for our security."
"Will it?" Queen Rosser asked.
"I don't think so," Iris said. "With Minos controlling the situation, the Flaming Empire wouldn't dare do anything against us... But not only that, even in his absence, the Black Plain Empire already has experts who can threaten Harold. So if there's any danger to us, it's not this ancient enemy."
King Blackrock couldn't help but agree with that. "The only one who could decide to do us any harm currently is Minos himself and his territory."
"If that is the case, we should accept this agreement." Queen Rosser said. "If Minos wants to do something against us, it won't be the means of transportation that will stop him. We are already within his reach."
The two were silent for a few moments, feeling that, as much as this was a shame, it was the way it was, and they had to accept living like this.
But neither of them thought that Minos would act unfairly, so they soon agreed to accept Minos' offer.
"Well, we just have to define how our cities will be connected to the Black Plain Empire..."
They continued talking about this, trying to sort out each other's interests for a while longer.
...
Meanwhile, Dry City had unstable weather this day, with rainy weather and strong winds.
Gray clouds covered the skies, facilitating the training of many former members of the Gray Clouds Sect in this city, who had techniques associated with the related Natural Laws.
Amid this, Minos was looking at the sky from inside his residence, finishing eating while seeing something relevant through the window he was looking at.
At that position, a black area opened up inside the protected area of Dry City, revealing five people dressed in pirate costumes.
Seeing this, Minos frowned, sensing that something was wrong. This time, these people were different from those who had come before at the behest of the Blood Triangle Pirates.
But even though they acted differently and had more people among them, this was the group from that organization, individuals with the red symbols of this branch of the Evergreen family.
Minos then flew towards those people, finally realizing their cultivation levels.
Among those people was a Spiritual Demigod, level 90!
'That's not a good sign...' He thought as he ignored the other four, two level 88, one level 87, and one level 86.
Meanwhile, the group leader, the Blood Triangle Pirates leader, one of the two Spiritual Demigods of this organization, looked at Minos and recognized him.
"Minos Stuart, you have had plenty of time to decide. I will not leave this city without an answer today!"
...
