Ten days passed quickly.
In the meantime, the fights of the competitors of the selection for new soldiers of the Black Plain Army had already reached its final days.
At this time, there were only three more days of matches, and several competitors have already been eliminated. In fact, of the nearly 5,000 competitors who had reached this point in the selection, more than 1,000 of them had been eliminated.
However, in the fights that remained these last few days, the vast majority of the remaining competitors had good chances to continue competing for the 1,250 vacancies.
Among them was the young Alina, who had already guaranteed her place in the last part of the selection!
She had only lost one fight during that period, and at this point, even if she lost the last battle, she would still be ranked.
Anyway, the atmosphere was festive in the Dry City, with constant movement in the local fight arena.
...
It was night in the Dry City, and at this moment, Minos was diligently cultivating in the Spatial Kingdom.
He had started this cultivation session about an hour ago, right after he finished his sovereign activities. And unlike what had happened the other day, this time Minos had not received a visit from Abby at his workplace.
Although this had happened a few times, Minos' young friend usually preferred to see him later in the evening at the end of working hours. The office, after all, was not a suitable place for two young people to talk...
But nothing more than what had happened before had occurred between them. For Minos, Abby having allowed him to touch and even suck her breasts could already be considered a significant advance, given the time he worked on this relationship.
That young woman had a temperament that was naturally more stable and difficult to change. So, even if he had already made some progress, it would still take him longer to achieve something more meaningful.
In any case, the two were very close friends. They talked alone almost every day before they went to bed, something that usually happened after Minos' cultivation session.
Anyway, Minos was sitting on the ground, beside the lake house, in a spot where the two foxes could be seen, not far from him.
Of the two, Emlyn was lying on the ground as she watched Minos from afar, in a position where she was on her paws, ready to run at any moment.
And Kyla, on the other hand, seemed to be sitting while her little eyes were closed. Her body seemed to tremble gently while the spiritual density around her was subtly higher than its surroundings.
At this point, the young fox was cultivating diligently, while her little belly looked quite full.
But that was no abnormality in this young fox's body. In fact, spiritual beasts could not use spiritual techniques, not even spiritual crystals. Consequently, they depended more on free energy in the world and food.
Because of this, under certain circumstances, a beast would eat a lot before cultivating to maximize its cultivation speed. Such a thing would be comparable to a human using spiritual crystals in cultivation, avoiding spending a lot of time gathering free energy in their surroundings.
Because spiritual medicines, resources with a massive concentration of spiritual energy, were scarce, these beasts ate common foods with a high concentration of spiritual energy, such as those grown in the Dry City. And because of that, Kyla's belly appeared full right now.
However, in the case of beasts like Emlyn, who had already passed level 50, such a thing had minimal effect. Just like with the humans who could no longer efficiently cultivate with low-grade crystals after reaching level 50.
For beasts from the 6th stage onwards, only spiritual medicines could do more meaningful effects for them!
And because of that, Kyla's mother had already been feeding on Common-grade and Warrior-grade medicines for the past few months, so she could continue cultivating quickly.
However, regarding the use of spiritual medicines, this would be much more effective than common foods. For example, Emlyn didn't have to stuff herself with medicines to grow her cultivation base, as Kyla had been doing.
Emlyn only needed to eat a few Common-grade medicines a day or one Warrior-grade medicine each week, and that would be enough!
Anyway, while Kyla cultivated and Emlyn looked around, Minos was circling his technique, Solar God Breath, right now. Today he was feeling ready to level up and would only stop after he did.
Every time a human cultivator came close to a promotion, some bodily and soul sensations would indicate that possibility. Thus, for example, there was a certain muscular tension when a person was close to a breakthrough in the middle of a cultivation session.
There was also a feeling in the cultivator's soul, as if it were slowly being stretched, taking on a shape more and more like that individual's appearance.
But of course, significant changes didn't happen from one level to another since the differences from one level to another weren't usually so prominent within the same stage of cultivation. Significant changes only occurred from one stage to another when there was a great addition of spiritual energy!
Given Minos' low cultivation, the changes in his soul were very small, almost undetectable. That would only become more noticeable when a cultivator approached level 70 when the soul would finally transform into something tangible.
Anyway, in the midst of this, the low-grade spiritual crystals around Minos glowed intensely, gradually fading and turning into ashes. At the same time, the spiritual density around him was pretty high, averaging more than seven times greater than what Kyla was forming.
Crack!
And after nearly two hours of sitting meditatively, Minos finally felt a cracking noise coming from deep in his being as he finally reached the beginning of level 43!
In that instant, young Stuart's soul ceased to extend while his musculature had returned to its former relaxed state. Such effects were typical of advancement, and only during these moments, a cultivator would have to experience them.
That was, to some extent, painful. However, given the increased power generated by advancement, this was the pain that came before a great satisfaction!
That's why every cultivator loved to level up.
As for the pain level, this was also related to the impurities present in a person's physical body. Obviously, these toxins hindered cultivation, but they also could make the process more painful too!
But not only that, at the final level of each stage, that is, at the moment of advancing into the next realm of cultivation, that feeling would be even worse than usual. After all, with the increase in energy needed for advancement, more would be the discomfort generated by a breakthrough, followed by spiritual cleansing.
Anyway, in this regard, the young Stuart wasn't doing so bad, but he wasn't doing so well either. With a talent superior to Golden, there were almost no restrictions on his soul, the factor directly related to talent.
However, for his body, the factor directly related to the Physique, this one was not going so well.
Even though his Physique was a mutant type, which had great potential, he still hadn't reached this rank equivalent to the Golden talent, which would be the Divine-grade Physique.
In fact, Minos still had the usual Warrior-grade Physique, something that made his cells produce more toxins...
Just as talent could facilitate cultivation, making the soul more 'cleaner,' so did the Physique with the body. There would be a difference in producing natural toxins related to metabolism and absorption of external items with different degrees of this characteristic!
Higher-grade physiques would be more efficient, while lower-grade ones would be less efficient, producing large amounts of toxins.
That was also a limiting factor for many cultivators!
But anyway, Minos didn't feel much pain in his advances, given the fact that he, just a 5th stage cultivator, couldn't handle large amounts of spiritual energy. On the other hand, when he got to the next stage, he could finally improve his Physique's rating!
He then opened his eyes slowly as he thought about his future Physique rank advancement. 'I have to get a King-grade medicine before I reach level 50...'
