In the Spatial Kingdom, a few hours had passed since Minos began to level up when he heard a slight cracking sound coming from his body. The sound was very subtle, and if it weren't for the extremely quiet environment around him, it would have been impossible for him to hear.
KA KRAAAK!
Immediately after that, Minos felt as if a sweaty and sticky body had suddenly started repelling sweat, but in his case, the thing that he felt being repelled from his body was not sweat, rather it was a gooey and dark substance.
It looked more like a slurry that would come out of the garbage, not just in its appearance but also in smell.
But despite the very meager amount, Minos still felt like throwing up just feeling it.
After he felt that there was no more to come out, Minos ran to the big house to take a shower right away. Even the thought of starting to train his first attack technique didn't come to his mind, besides, he knew that there was no way that he would be able to focus on practicing with the current smell of his body.
...
A few minutes passed, and Minos walked out of the house, completely clean and also in another set of clothes.
"Wow, I never thought that the odor of the impurities in my body would be so bad!' Minos thought, as he still had a queasy expression on his face.
What happened just now was the spiritual cleansing that the fleshy body would undergo every time a cultivator moves up the cultivation stage. This process serves to remove toxic substances present in the body's cells.
Usually, the source of these substances was food, residues of spiritual pills, medicines, and even the body's own normal functioning.
That was because, under normal conditions, most of the food and pills would have impurities, which would continue to accumulate in the body over time, along with bioaccumulation.
As for medicines and body metabolism, these two could also generate toxins.
The first, when taken in excess, could force the body to react which would further result in the release of these toxins. Second, the body had natural reactions that would generate these substances, such as the aging of many cells.
In fact, the main result of this transformation was the increase in the vitality of the cultivator, which is usually also the main objective of many people. After all, who would not want to obtain a few more years of life in this world?
Finally, Minos picked up a golden parchment as he stopped before the lake and then started to learn the Spatial Sword technique.
"With a sword in my hand, the fate of millions can be reaped. Do you have numbers? It makes no difference. They will all freeze and then be annihilated in less than 1 second…"
Minos started to analyze the meaning present in the technique...
After a few hours, he had already performed the movement for the hundredth time. And at that moment, he noticed that a falling leaf had stopped temporarily before it continued to fall again.
He had learned the basics of the technique and was now in its first phase. And after he had achieved reaching level 20, he would have to complete thousands of moves to get to the second stage.
That was because, unlike the cultivation technique that only needed to be activated to strengthen itself, with the rise in level, the user's dominance over it would increase, but with other techniques, the cultivator was required to complete a given number of executions before being able to make progress in the cultivation stage.
But it would not be enough to increase the energy in the cultivator's body as the cultivator would need to have an equivalent understanding of his techniques. This was also one of the reasons why at higher levels the speed of cultivation was slower!
And in addition to devoting their time to cultivating spiritual energy, cultivators would still have to train each of their techniques at an equivalent level.
After finishing his training session, Minos returned back to his mansion and had a great night's sleep after the heavily taxing day.
…
Five more days have passed.
Minos was now at level 11, and today was the time to answer Elen Nash about their potential partnership.
According to Dillian's team, there was nothing particularly problematic about Elen within the Nash family. In fact, the only relevant thing they found about her was that she was 22 years old, at level 42 and had a Black talent.
Thus, Minos intended to form a partnership with Elen.
After sending someone to inform Elen of his decision, in just an hour the young blonde arrived at Minos' mansion, followed by her bodyguard.
"You can follow me, Ms. Nash. The young master will already receive you," Mia smiled and escorted her to Minos'.
"OK."
Soon after, the meeting began and they discussed some important details before closing the deal.
According to the agreement, Elen Nash would supply four high-level grade-1 spiritual arrays. And along with that, she would also have to promote the products produced in the Black Plain within Stone Island and facilitate contact between professionals from the island with Minos' region.
On the side of the young Stuart, he would have to market his products on Stone Island through Elen, which would give her an exclusive right of reselling within the region.
"So, it is agreed to this. Will Ms. Elen be in my city longer? Who knows, we might have dinner to celebrate this deal," Minos suggested celebrating their collaboration.
"I appreciate your kindness, but we can do this the next time I am here. I've been here for a long time, and have to return to my family," Elen spoke with an earnest look on her face while giving a polite rejection.
"Oh, all right, then! Stay for the next time," Minos nodded, after which, the group said goodbye.
Before leaving, Elen promised to send the spiritual gathering arrays to the Black Plain as soon as she arrived at Stone Island.
According to her, it should take between 2 and 3 weeks for this to be done.
But for Minos, this timeframe was already very excellent. With the fact that the plantings have been started just now, he could not even think of having the number of arrays that she had promised in less than a year.
Although the arrays had a limited effect given the present spiritual density of Black Plain, they could still significantly improve this condition after possessing enough spiritual crystals.
And even if the effects were not so significant, the arrival of four high-grade arrays would be crucial for the whole town with no array and lacked much spiritual density.
…
Meanwhile, in various parts of the city, the citizens were fervently discussing a particular topic.
In fact, it had been two weeks since the rumor about Black Plain's 'CURE' had come out, but most people in Dry City didn't believe this rumor at first.
However, the situation was completely different at this point.
Those 200 people who had been hired for agriculture now had spread the word to those closest to them that it was now possible to farm on the Black Plain's land.
In fact, not only that, but in just two weeks the crops had also grown to the point where anyone passing by the plantation field near the city could notice them.
And as a result, the topic had spread more than before, like wildfire, and many already thought that it was a miracle and they were not forgotten by the heavens…
'"He actually did it! Hahaha, I just can't wait for more farmers to be hired. This time, I will be the first in line," said a resident of Dry City with an exuberant smile.
"Hmph, get out! I am the one in line!"
Some people around laughed at the two, and then someone said, "You old people shouldn't be worried. Considering the size of the Black Plain, I don't doubt that there will be a lot of demand for labor." Hearing him, many nodded in agreement.
Of course, with 200,000 km² and a population of just 50,000, if the sovereign wanted to start plantations in the region, there would be no question of unemployment for the current citizens of the Black Plain.
Meanwhile, someone added, "Not only that. My cousin who works in the city's guard told me that Mr. Stuart also wants to increase the strength of the city's forces; they might release the number of vacancies and remuneration in the next six months. And there will also be places for our children who are interested in joining."
This news was something very relevant for people in the city having Blue talent. They were ordinary cultivators who usually had no specializations, thus working as guards was generally a good option for most of them.
But the only problem was that Dry City did not have enough resources to maintain a considerable number of troops.
And consequently, the competition was also fierce for each new vacancy that appeared in the guard of the city. Because of that, most could only be content with doing random services in the region for survival.
'It looks like this Minos Stuart is not that bad,' many of them thought and were excited about the steady changes that were occurring in their city.
…
Meanwhile, as rumors inundated the city, two incredibly dazzling women were nearing the Black Plain from the south, the Cromwell Kingdom. However, they were just passing through as they came from an empire.
"Master, are we going to bring your son back to the sect from the Black Plain?" the disciple asked her teacher.
The other woman had her lips pursed as she said, "I'm not sure, Ruth. He is like his father, so I don't know if he'll want to follow me."
She was wonderful, and despite being the oldest of the two, still looked like a young adult in her early twenties.