Another six months passed in the blink of an eye...
After Grant's passage through Dry City earlier, he returned to the Western Empire with the answers Henry Quinn wanted from Minos.
He had promised to return in a few years to follow closely the final stretch of Minos' preparation to investigate the North Sea. Still, for now, he would stay in the Western Empire.
Minos had seen no problem with this and had left his doors open for this man to return.
After Grant's departure, the empire had lived this short period in absolute peace, with minor problems compared to those that threatened to hit them in the future.
The migrations of people from high-level empires continued, and the arrival of more and more Spiritual Saints in this region increased the demand for products, competition, and some minor conflicts.
But none of this was worrying enough to disturb the life of the imperial family of this state, which had been progressively improving.
With three more brief periods of seclusion in the Spatial Kingdom, Minos had advanced to level 79, having reached the crucial part of this stage in preparing to become a Sage.
Everyone in the empire was looking forward to his advancement, for once he became a Spiritual Sage, his combat proficiency would significantly increase, and the state would benefit immensely.
But amidst the local anticipation of the emperor's advancement to the 9th stage, five more level 79 Spiritual Saints had upgraded in level and became Sages!
Minos' grandmother, Patience King, had managed to advance and reach the same level as her husband.
The others who had advanced were either members of the Gray Clouds Sect or related to the relatives of the Goddess of Life.
Besides them, the imperial family and Minos' army kept getting stronger.
Most recently, the empress had advanced to level 77. At the same time, several of the members of the imperial guard had made advances in this period.
It would still be a while before natives of the northern region could advance to the 9th stage, but many were already approaching it.
For people like Eduard and Peter, this advancement to the final stage of cultivation for them shouldn't take many years.
Most of Minos' subordinates still had Black and Blue grade talent. So for those who had not yet reached their maximum potential, level 69, those of intermediate talent would soon reach their limit stage, the 9th.
But until then, there was still a long way to go, and each person in Minos' forces had been striving hard to improve and reach their maximum.
And so the empire had been improving in these times of regional peace, preparing themselves while the greatest forces on the continent were not looking down on them!
...
After the past few months, changes around the Black Plain Empire generated a lot of population movement.
With the situation between the Western and Southern regions, in which no one could say for sure when it would get out of control and when damage would be generated, Rosser, Albano, Blackrock, and even Vogel had moved in the meantime to improve their chances.
Vogel's situation was the least worse because it was within the Black Plain Empire. But that territory bordered directly on the Veora Kingdom, which could soon be at war.
As such, the leaders of the Vogel Assembly were worried.
They had improved a lot since they had become loyal to Minos a few years ago. But even though some of them had even advanced to level 78, something never seen before in these areas, that and the 2 Spiritual Sages stationed in their territory were not enough to keep the local nobles calm.
As such, after finding out about the actions of the West and Blackrock families, this territory's leaders joined Rosser's royal family to repeat the feat of their former allies.
To change the position of their capitals!
Blackrock and Albano had taken Isabella's suggestion. They started building their new capitals on the borders of their territory with that of Minos, where they could unite to defend themselves against future challenges.
The government of Minos had also joined them and started the construction of part of this capital city that would have the seats of two autonomous states.
As such, on the border of these three territories, a splendid city had been built in recent months to receive the leaders of the two states and more men from the Black Plain Army.
As a place on the empire's border, there would be a special army post in this city, something that would be good for everyone involved.
Knowing of this project, the leaders of Vogel and Rosser had come to the same agreement, having already started the construction of their new capital between the borders of their territories.
Vogel belonged to the empire, so this area would not have the involvement of the Minos government in the same way as that other area. However, it would also have a special army post because it was on the empire's border.
So new cities were springing up on the borders of the state of Minos, little by little raising the security of this place and making it easier for the government of Minos to control who passed through these areas.
Over the years, Minos and his government had also reached agreements with various beast tribes in these areas and increased the number of powerful beasts in their forces.
These beasts had been moved to the empire's borders in recent times, where they had to make the entry of irregular immigrants more difficult.
Beasts like Little Green, currently at level 79, had been guarding several areas between the empire, Albano, and Blackrock.
And so, even in these times of migration from south to north, the Minos government had been having quite significant control over the influx of people into their domain.
Amid this, leaders from these areas were increasingly being seen around Dry City, where Minos was taking advantage of the times of peace to train those who were interested.
In peace, there were not many challenges for people like him, so he used military exercises with allies and subordinates to continue his fighting routine, strengthening himself and his people as well.
And so a new match was about to take place after months of training like this in this part of the empire, with King Blackrock, Queen West, Queen Rosser, all at level 79, several individuals at the same level from the local army, and another half dozen Spiritual Sages.
...
