The Rise of the Black Plain

Upon entering the large building, Minos and Ruth immediately looked at a big screen that was placed at the center of the entrance hall, which provided information about the different types of training rooms available in this place.

After a glance, the two soon discovered that there were four main types of rooms, each would support the different stages and could also vary in sizes.

The first type of room was designated for cultivators who were in the 2nd stage. The second room was for the 3rd stage, the third for the 4th, and the last for the 5th stage cultivators.

The cost of the number of crystals someone would need to pay for each room also depended on its size, ranging from private rooms to rooms for up to 10 people.

For the smallest room for 2nd-stage cultivators, the prices ranged from 50 low-grade crystals to a staggering 50,000 crystals per day for the largest room for 5th-stage cultivators!

Minos and Ruth were interested in a room for two people at the 5th stage, which had a charge of 16,000 low-grade crystals per day.

And interestingly, the smaller rooms actually cost more than larger rooms if the values were divided between the people who would use them. Of course, that was a measure to lower the cost for those with few spiritual crystals!

After paying for a day of training, Minos and Ruth made their way to the 11th floor, where the room they had managed to rent was located.

The duo passed through a spacious corridor and arrived at the elevator to go to their room, number 1158. As the elevator started to rise, the two noticed that this was definitely not a tiny place. No, on all floors of this building, there were restaurants and living areas where the cultivators could talk between training sessions.

The place was surprisingly well-designed and aimed at the well-being and comfort of the users of this service.

Anyway, Minos and Ruth finally arrived at the room they had rented.

This room was about 100 square meters and even had a bathroom and a kitchen. However, other than that, there was practically no furniture in the room since the most critical use of these rooms was for cultivation and training.

Though there was only one section of the room reserved for the fights, it occupied the largest portion, and there was an area of about 10 square meters equipped with two large cultivation cushions.

Along with that, the ceiling had a large spiritual array, which concentrated the spiritual energy from the battle only within the confines of this place!

Ruth looked at Minos with a smile on her face and suggested, "How about we start with our sparring session first?"

"Eh? I thought you would prefer to do that after we cultivate..." Minos was slightly surprised.

"I don't know why, but I want to change that order today..." Ruth replied ambiguously.

Minos nodded his head in agreement as it made no difference for him since he would eventually have to fight her anyway.

With that, the two quickly changed their clothes as it would not be suitable for them to train in their regular attire.

Minos was then only in shorts, while the young Ruth wore light armor, which could also serve as clothing.

"Are you ready?" Ruth asked, a smile still present on her face.

"Hmm, come on!"

In a moment, the two gazed at each other for a split second before activating their techniques.

Devouring Art!

Indestructible Body!

Spatial Sword!

The light in the room suddenly dimmed as Minos activated his support technique, forming a black ring above him while a low humming sound could also be heard as it slowly spun.

After the numerous struggles that Minos and Ruth had between themselves and after the several battles the young Stuart had with the many beasts and enemies, all three of his techniques had already reached their full completion in their respective phases.

Therefore, now all he had to do was to accumulate more energy for advancing to new phases.

However, by now Minos had already started to feel an increasing sense of control over his power, to the extent that he believed he could even reduce the area that was affected by his techniques if he so desired.

Moreover, he also felt that with the next phase of Devouring Art, he would probably be able to absorb energy only from those specific targets he wanted to suck the energy from!

Instant Steps!

Fists of Pain!

Ruth started moving within the area of influence under Minos' techniques, hardly feeling any impact on her body.

Even though she had lost some of her energy due to Minos' technique since he reached level 38, it was still almost negligible for Ruth to feel any effect.

As for the Spatial Sword, the technique could barely affect Ruth's speed by utmost 5%. Therefore, the fight between the two remained a game for Minos' endurance.

Swooish!

Minos quickly made several air blades while maneuvering around to evade Ruth's incoming punch!

Pow!

However, Minos' movements proved too slow for young Ruth. She quickly dodged the blades of air without any effort while sending several powerful blows in his direction.

Pow!

Another blow landed on Minos' chest, and he was suddenly thrown aside, crashing until his back hit the array protecting the room walls!

"Ahh!"

He cried out feeling pain in different parts of his body. He then gasped trying to stand up, "Ha... Haa... Ruth... You're using more strength than usual. Take it a little easier on me!"

"Oh? I am sorry, I didn't notice. Let's continue!" saying this, the corners of the girl's lips suddenly curled up into a mischievous smile as she moved towards Minos once again.

Pow!

"Ahhh!"

...

The fight went on for a few more minutes, with Minos basically taking a good beating from Ruth, the young Stuart was being repeatedly tossed from one side of the room to the other.

At the end of this 'friendly match', Minos was completely exhausted, while having some abrasions and an ashen face.

On the other hand, Ruth appeared just as pristine as before, without even having a single drop of sweat marring her beautiful face. But unlike Minos, who had suffered so much in the fight, she felt invigorated, as if she had released all of her pent-up stress...

'It seems that I shouldn't have thoughts about other women while I'm with her...' Minos mused as he crawled to start regaining his strength.

Seeing his condition, Ruth smiled softly and then immediately started training her battle techniques.

This time, she took an array from her spatial ring, which resembles a shield, and then started using it like a punching bag to train her technique, Fists of Pain!

Pow!

Pow!

...

Time flew by, and the young couple had completely trained all of their techniques, leaving only spiritual cultivation.

Since Minos had fewer techniques than Ruth and needed less time to train them, he was the first to start meditation after spreading several crystals around him.

Though the room they had rented had great spiritual concentration, it became even better after combining it with their spiritual crystals!

Therefore, Minos was quickly immersed in cultivating his technique, Solar God Breath, while appreciating how much easier it was to cultivate in a place like this.

'I have to make a place like this in Dry City. This is just incredible!'

'Even with the assistance of these crystals, I think the absorption speed inside this room is already at least twice as fast as a place without an array like the one here!' he contemplated as he sensed the spiritual energy around him started to merge with him along the energy from the crystals.

...

After devoting most of their first day to training in the cultivation room for the 5th-stage cultivators, Minos and Ruth returned to the hotel and had their usual fun.

The young woman simply had no reason for not doing her thing with him since she had already released her stress on him earlier.

Following their first day, the two decided to continue following this training routine at the Cultivation Tower for the next few days until the Spiritual Tournament finally commenced.

...

With that, two weeks soon passed in Capital City, with Minos and Ruth dedicating themselves to rigorous training while they spent the remainder of their time having some rest and fun during the night at their hotel.

But that was not the only thing that Minos did during this period.

He and Ruth frequently stopped by to check on the Cultivation Ranking and also some of the fights in the arena. However, most of the time, nothing captured the duo's attention, as Minos was not a fan of any of his peers. And so they would not waste their precious time watching other people grow stronger...

As for the arena fights, the drug only focused on those battles that involved cultivators above level 41. Unfortunately, something like that did not happen often, with only two matches, one between the 5th and 7th positions and the other between the 2nd and 3rd positions in the Arena Ranking.

During these fights, there were not many surprises, and those in the best ranking only managed to keep their position after very intense and challenging battles.

Along with that, at the Cultivation Tower, Minos also met a few people who were going to participate in the Spiritual Tournament.

Whenever he and Ruth took a break to rest and eat, the duo would see some regular people on the same floor as theirs, they were a pair of red-haired siblings, the two contenders from the Cultivation Ranking, the Carline siblings, Ford Carline and Kara Carline.