Another eight months passed in the blink of an eye!
After this long period of tension between the western and southern regions, the Central Continent was still not experiencing an all-out war, but tempers were slowly reaching worrying levels.
This was true for the southernmost part of the continent. However, in the north, things were going relatively well, with peace and development.
Some new Spiritual Sages had appeared in this state during the intervening period, some men from the Gray Clouds Sect and other individuals part of the Goddess of Life family group.
With these new 9th-stage experts, Minos had finally made the final exchanges regarding the Gray Clouds Sect, and now only 2 Spiritual Sages from that sect remained in the Flaming Empire.
All the other sect members now lived in the Black Plain Empire.
Due to these exchanges, there were now 3 Spiritual Sages in the Flaming Empire, the largest number in the entire history of this state!
Other than this state of Isabella's family, Blackrock and Albano had begun their integrations into the Black Plain Empire, and so in each of them, there were already two low-level Spiritual Sages to mark Minos' territory.
Rosser was lagging behind its former companions, so it was the only place still without the presence of 9th-stage cultivators to protect them.
Luckily this state was between the Flaming Empire, Albano, Vogel, and the Cromwell area, each of these places already marked by Minos' forces and with the presence of Spiritual Sages.
But Rosser's royal family was already moving to also integrate into the Black Plain Empire and become an autonomous kingdom of that state.
In the midst of this, Dry City was receiving taxes from those two kingdoms already under its protection, which was helping the local forces to continue developing the outer areas of this state.
The areas of End, Snow, Waves, Brown, Cromwell, and Stone Island needed a lot of investment, so any additions to the imperial government budget helped a lot.
But in addition to these acquisitions regarding new accessions to the empire, the population as a whole was growing stronger.
Most of the northern region's more than 2 billion inhabitants were below 60. As such, in just eight months of peace and opportunity, many had improved their levels, some moving up a cultivation stage.
Consequently, the quality of local services was increasing, which also generated better services to serve both the local natives and the immigrants that had been growing in numbers recently.
Because of this, the whole state was developing rapidly, and the good news was arriving daily in the empire's capital.
There were problems, of course. Petty theft, property invasions, misunderstandings, you name it. But in a huge territory with a population in the billions, these incidents were a minority and did not worry the local forces.
Therefore, the last few months have been much more positive than negative!
But the good news did not only reach Dry City. Some of it originated right there, and it spread from this city to the entire empire.
Just yesterday, news had left Dry City to the joy of the billions of local inhabitants.
Emperor Minos Stuart had advanced and reached level 78 yesterday afternoon!
...
At the imperial palace, Minos had already returned to his duties after his last few weeks in seclusion in the Spatial Kingdom.
After his breakthrough, he returned to Dry City to spend some time fulfilling his duties with the empire and his family, so he was temporarily free of his cultivation.
But Minos had celebrated the day before, for upon leaving his seclusion, he had discovered that Gloria had also advanced, having also reached level 78 in recent weeks.
Ruth was still at level 76, and Abby had advanced to this level two months ago.
Several high-ranking members of the Black Plain Army had also improved their cultivation while in the Spatial Kingdom or in Dry City, so Minos had celebrated the day before.
Some were getting close to their cultivation limit. This was the case with the natives of the northern region, who didn't have grand enough talents to go very far.
But those who could go further were taking advantage of the opportunities and becoming stronger, contributing to the strengthening of Minos' forces.
Minos' allies in Dry City were also striving to become stronger in the high-level cultivation rooms of that capital city.
As an example, the Supreme Elder of the Edwardstone family had been cultivating diligently for the past few months, approaching his long-awaited breakthrough to the 9th stage of cultivation.
Unfortunately, he had not yet reached level 80 and was still attempting his breakthrough in the main local cultivation room.
In that place, the spiritual energy was violent, where not only high-level Spiritual Sages were cultivating, but even some Spiritual Sages were in the vicinity.
Currently, there were more than 15 Spiritual Sages in the Black Plain Empire, and even if only 5 of them stayed in Dry City, one or two of them could always be seen in rooms like this.
At the moment, there were two of these experts around. Therefore, the density of spiritual energy and laws there was higher than normal, something that facilitated the advancement of those close to achieving such a thing.
Amidst this, the old supreme elder was meditating in a lotus position, circulating his cultivation technique while sweating intensely.
He didn't have much more time to advance, so he was slowly becoming more anxious about this advancement.
As he forcefully tried to absorb the laws and spiritual energy in the surroundings, he felt his soul inflating in a different way and thought he was about to advance.
But when he heard the cracking sound coming from his body, something that could indicate his breakthrough, he felt something he shouldn't and changed the expression on his face.
'No...'
That was all he could think before his strength rapidly decayed while his appearance worsened significantly.
At the crucial moment of his advancement to the 9th stage, the Edwardstone family's eldest man made a serious mistake and caused a cultivation deviation!
Following this, the first of the catastrophes he would face arrived in the form of spiritual collapse!
...
