Ruth had traveled for nearly two months out of the southwestern region of the Flaming Empire until she finally reached the Black Plain. And in the time since leaving the Gray Cloud Sect headquarters, she had finally advanced to level 51!
On the other hand, her giant eagle hadn't been far behind and had considerably improved since Minos had last seen it.
White was already at level 45 and could be considered an extremely fast beast by the standards of the northern region of the Central Continent.
To give you an idea, the journey between the Cromwell Kingdom's capital and the Dry City would have previously taken three weeks in this beast, with only stops for rest. Still, now it could do the same in just over ten days!
And that had helped this young disciple of Minos' mother so quickly to get to the Dry City!
Anyway, White soon began to lower its altitude, seeing the silhouette of young Stuart's city from afar. It no longer needed Ruth to give its as many commands as before, as its intelligence had reached a reasonably high level. It could clearly understand where it was going and what it was supposed to do in this situation.
With that, it was not long before the pair of eagle and human reached a distance from the Dry City, from where they could better see and feel the local changes.
'This place has grown a lot in size…' Ruth thought to herself as she had a beautiful smile on her face.
From afar, she could see the city that was much larger than what she remembered and the green area on the side of the town where the local plantations were growing. Such a place had grown to more than ten times its former size and was much more diverse.
But as this young Spiritual King thought about the visual improvements she could see from afar, her beast commented something. 'Master, there is a protection in this city that we will not be able to overcome.'
Obviously, White could sense this much more quickly than Ruth, as its senses were sharper than this young human's, despite the difference in levels between the two.
On hearing such a warning, Ruth soon began to probe the territory as far forward as possible to understand what White was talking about. "Hmm, the natural spiritual energy of this region seems much denser than the last time I came here…." She muttered under her breath before finally noticing the spiritual fluctuations generated by the medium-level grade-2 defensive arrays.
'Oh? So, he paid for something like that?"' She wondered inwardly, not too surprised.
Ruth already knew part of Minos' ambitions, so it wasn't all that unexpected to her that this young man would try to protect himself that way. And in fact, the only thing that surprised her right now was the fact that in just about three years, this place had reached the point where it could pay for such a thing.
After a few more seconds, she couldn't stop thinking about the young man's figure with brown hair, trying to connect the changes in this place with what could have happened to Minos. 'What level should he be on? Did his cultivation speed continue as good as before?'
'If so, he's probably already passed level 45!'
As she thought about this and other questions, Ruth and White landed near the southern post of the local wall, where several soldiers were already looking in her direction seriously.
"Ahh, this is getting more and more frequent..." One of them thought a little wistfully, realizing that the peace he so cherished was starting to slip away.
"Will we have to fight this time?"
'I hope that person is like those others...'
...
While the soldiers had many thoughts about Ruth's arrival, she identified herself and communicated her purpose here before one of them spoke something.
This young woman knew that with the local growth, the army of Minos would undoubtedly have increased in number. Hence, the possibility of one of these people recognizing her was tiny, as, at the time she had passed through this place, there were only a few Spiritual Generals locally!
Consequently, those soldiers in front of her were likely people who had joined the local forces after her departure and who didn't even know about her existence. And since she already had an idea of how things would work in the Dry City when Minos would be strong enough, she more or less knew how to interact with these people.
"My name is Ruth Miles, and I come from the Gray Cloud Sect, from the Flaming Empire." She then paused for a moment when she saw that these people were agitated and then continued. "Yes, I am a Spiritual King, something that is probably treated as a threat by Minos. However, I will not surrender."
"Each of you must be very strong and possibly work well as a team, perhaps being able to stop even people stronger than me. But even if I can't defeat you in a fight, I can easily dodge your attacks, as I'm not like the Spiritual Kings of this region."
"So, please, don't threaten me, as I'm not interested in attacking you either. Just let Minos, Dillian, Mia, Pyke, or even Humbert know. Any one of them knows about me and will allow my entry."
Upon hearing all this, the more than 30 soldiers who stood in front of this woman were impressed with her way of speaking, not giving them a chance to fulfill their duties...
"What do we do, Seargent Calvert? This woman has made many important points, and she is not even from our region…" A level 44 soldier asked the group leader, speaking in a low voice and observing Ruth's movements.
"If she is from the Flaming Empire, then this girl might be even stronger than Lieutenant Eda!" Another commented, remembering the fact that this woman was already at level 51 and both must have Silver-grade techniques.
With such a remark, this man recalled how, when they fought together against Eda, they had pretty good results, but only because that woman didn't attack them with the intent of killing.
Otherwise, the fights would undoubtedly be more brutal for them!
But even with such decent results, these soldiers had never managed to beat Eda since she had received the Silver-grade techniques.
That's because Eda possessed a movement technique far superior to that of those regular soldiers, which effectively eliminated their chances of winning her if she chose to avoid their attacks!
And as someone who grew up in an empire, this woman in front of them had probably, never before in her life, changed techniques. In other words, her fighting proficiency was probably above Eda's and by a considerable margin!
With that thought in mind, the leader of this group couldn't help but feel a cold chill down his back, trying to solve this problem as acceptably as possible. 'If she's really from the empire, then if she wants to flee this place, none of us will be able to stop her...'
'However, if we allow her to enter the city, even if she is from one of the great sects of that place, it will still be impossible for her to escape once in the dome...'
'If she is trying to hold us here outside while one of us goes to check her identity, we could be in danger of enemy attacks and possible ambushes...'
'If she's not from the empire and is trying to trick us into entering our territory, then if we let her do that, it's like she's entering the lion's den…'
'She definitely couldn't break through the defenses and escape the city. And once inside that dome, we'll have hundreds of more soldiers to stop her from doing anything!' He pondered, concluding what would be the best alternative.
And finally, he said. "Fine, we'll let you in, but we won't allow you to circulate freely. You will have to wait inside this barrier, besides the wall, until someone confirms your identity."
...
