"You did that?" Maisie asked in surprise, unexpectedly discovering that Gloria had helped Minos.
Maisie had believed the entire time that Gloria and Minos' story was merely about the Black Plain's independence war, with such a woman becoming more involved with him than she should have.
But young Stuart's mother had at no time considered the possibility that Gloria had done something like helping Minos. After all, why would she do that?
She was from the Spiritual Church, and the very fact that she would give something to someone in this region could be considered a favor.
Maisie then saw the affirmative look on that redhead's face and pressed the issue. "If that is the case, you are solely responsible for all of this!"
"Yet, you still try to punish my son?"
"What?" Gloria said in surprise as she rose from her seat with an expression of strangeness on her beautiful face.
But Minos did not want the situation to develop that way. "You shouldn't say those accusatory words to Gloria."
"She gave me a high-level grade-2 sword to replace my weapon destroyed by her accidentally. There was no way she could have found out that I was a regional enemy at the time."
"And you shouldn't feel guilty about what happened, Gloria. I would have been able to eliminate those people with or without that sword. The difference is that it would have taken me a few minutes longer."
"Oh?" Maisie glanced angrily at Minos before finally giving Abby an advisory look.
Seeing that, the blue-haired woman just smiled gracelessly, not knowing what to do in that situation.
As for Gloria, she was surprised to see how Minos had defended her, even considering her actions against him. "Aren't you irritated by my decisions? They have practically increased the weight on your shoulders by a lot..."
But Minos just smiled at her, looking into Gloria's light green eyes. "Well, I can't predict everything that will happen, but I always prepare for sudden changes. So, your actions haven't done me as much harm as you imagine..."
'The opposite of that, the ones most harmed by this are the families who should benefit from your action, my dear Gloria...' He chuckled in his mind, thinking quietly about the results of that decision of hers.
Previously the war could last much longer, even with Minos' mission of terror around the region. However, with Gloria's action, young Stuart had gained stronger subordinates who could more quickly clear the battlefields.
Before, he had only intended to make those three kingdoms he had passed retreat, leaving room for him to solve his problems. But with the added power brought by Gloria's action, he had decided to use his newly acquired subordinates more actively.
He then continued. "In any case, don't worry about that matter. As for the attempted negotiation, I will do as you wish, but I don't think that will have any result."
"Never mind." She said more contentedly, seeing that Minos did not seem to have such a bad personality. "Trying to negotiate peace is enough for me at the moment."
Minos then looked at that beauty in silence for a few seconds before finally asking something about the future. "Gloria, what will happen if Spiritual Emperors appear in our region in the future?"
"Will the church remove protection for our region against action by people of that level?"
In that instant, the eyebrows of every single person in that room frowned as they comprehended what Minos was getting at.
Abby and Dillian were surprised that Minos would talk about it so openly with Gloria. But, at the same time, Maisie and that redhead were shocked at young Stuart's ambition.
"Are you saying that Spiritual Emperors will appear on the Black Plain in the future?" Maisie asked her son, curious as to how he would do that.
She understood that there was some gigantic mystery behind the development of the Black Plain. However, everything was acceptable to her so far, as this place was still fragile by continental standards.
And as impressive as Minos was, no one else in this organization was. Consequently, she could not help but ask that, curious to know what he had in mind.
"Maybe..." He said without looking at his mother, looking at Gloria.
And Gloria was not slow to answer him. "That's a good question..."
"We have prevented mighty organizations and people from acting in this region because one person like that would be enough to cause chaos for billions of people."
"But if there are others to fight such a threat, the situation might change."
"In any case, I believe that outside organizations would still need to follow the old rules. But people without deep backgrounds might have more freedom..." She said this as she looked at Minos, uncertain about all this.
She was the leader of the Spiritual Church in this region, but that did not mean she could decide that on her own. So, she was not sure about it.
Minos then understood what Gloria had said, thought for a moment, and said. "What if I offer your organization a deal?"
"A deal?" She smiled, curious.
"The Spiritual Church will guarantee the pre-war situation in my region for 20 years after my victory. So, in return, I will allow the church to enter the Black Plain after this period."
He saw that she wanted to question this strange proposal, but he did not give her space to speak. Instead, Minos just made a hand gesture asking her to wait for him to finish speaking. "The advantage of this is that I will raise the level of talents acquired by the church in this region."
"The Black Plain has much to grow, but we certainly won't have the capacity to accept everyone in our territory or my organizations. So, naturally, some unusual talents may go to other organizations."
"I pledge to direct them to the Spiritual Church rather than the sects of the Flaming Empire." He said this, ignoring his mother.
"Oh?" Gloria said in surprise.
But before she asked the question she had in mind, Maisie made a point of questioning her son. "How do you intend to do that? Even if the region improves in the future, talent is still the main key to good harvests, like the one you are promising."
"But talent is what is most lacking around this area..."
"Sigh..." Minos sighed, but before he said anything, his gorgeous fiancée massaged one of his thighs as she answered that question.
"That is a very pertinent question that I have asked Minos myself. And the answer to that is that we will raise the talent of the future local population."
She paused briefly and said. "Evolution!"
"So, that's it..." Gloria and Maisie said simultaneously, remembering this difficult-to-realize possibility.
They knew that cultivators could indeed evolve through their descent. After all, that was how ordinary people in the early days had created houses that later gave birth to cultivators with Silver or even Golden talent.
But doing this was far more complicated than one could imagine. That was because, in order to evolve talent throughout a family's offspring, each father and mother would have to make an effort to reach their full potential.
But this wasn't easy.
A person could die prematurely, be crippled, or even suffer negative consequences in trying to reach their maximum potential. But, on the other hand, pregnancy in the Spiritual World was problematic, and making it work out to the couple's maximum cultivation could be even more difficult.
Hell, the couple could try for centuries and fail to leave children with the best possible talent before their lives ended!
Not only that, passion was tough to control, and a man and a woman might decide to try to have a child earlier in their lives. Take the cases of Minos and Abby, who were already trying this, and Minos' parents, who had accomplished such a thing.
As much as doing that early increases the chances of the pregnancy being successful, the child's potential was undeniably diminished.
In other words, there were too many problems to prevent such a thing from working out!
But Minos did not mind the disbelief of those two and just said. "Obviously, it's not easy to do this. But by applying our goals to tens of millions of people, we will have successful cases."
"And those cases will necessarily be more numerous than the absorptive capacity of the Black Plain in the future." He said, looking thoughtfully at Gloria. "What do you say? Can you at least consider this proposition before the Spiritual Church does something stupid?"
"We'll still have several years to think about it..."
